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Hurricaneville is now going to feature its own outlook on the tropics. This report will be issued twice a day. In the morning, and in the evening. This is not designed to compete with the National Hurricane Center. They are the experts, and more importantly, the official word on tropical storms and hurricanes. Please go to their web site for their advisories, outlooks, and discussions, but feel free to use this as supplemental information. In our outlook, we have a breakdown of what's happening in the Atlantic by four regions: Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, North Atlantic, and Africa.

Good evening everyone. Things in the tropics continue to be busy in both the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific. Here, we will focus on the Atlantic. We are still dealing with Hurricane Felix in the Caribbean. Once a Category Five Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, Felix has weakened to a minimal Category Four system. Meanwhile, the rest of the tropics continue to have a couple other areas of disturbed weather at the moment. The Gulf is still dealing with an upper level low in the Western portion of the region that is bringing another round of showers and storms to Texas. Meanwhile, the is a tropical wave that has been lurking midway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles in the Central Atlantic is becoming less likely to become a depression. Moreover, we continue to watch a stubborn area of low pressure a couple hundred miles off the Georgia coast. And finally, Africa continues to develop its pipeline of waves with numerous clouds and showers across the middle of the continent while a vast disturbance still lurks offshore in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. So, get on board, and take a ride around the tropics with us.

The Gulf of Mexico has an area of disturbed weather in its Western part as an upper level low continues to have clouds and showers hug the Texas coastline. Heavy rains once again have been drenching portions of Southeastern Texas including Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, and Brownsville. Otherwise, no development is expected over the next 24 hours.

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The Caribbean continues to be the place to be for tropical activity on this early Labor Day evening. Hurricane Felix, the sixth named storm of the season, has not only become the second hurricane of 2007, but also the second major hurricane and Category Five storm. Currently, Felix has weakened a bit with 135 mile per hour winds, 160 mile per hour gusts, and a minimum central pressure of 953 millibars, or 28.05 inches of Hg. Moving to the West at 18 miles per hour, Felix is centered some 250 miles to the east of Cabo Gracias A Dios in Nicaragua, and its tropical storm force winds extend some 115 miles from the center while its hurricane force winds reach some 30 miles from its ten nautical mile wide eye. The storm has been undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle after a 70 millibar drop over a span of 36 hours including a 59 millibar drop over a 24 hour span.

Right now, there is a Hurricane Warning out for the Central American coastline from Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua northward to Limon along the northern coast of Honduras. In addition, there is a Hurricane Watch out from the Central America coast from west of Limon through the Caribbean shoreline of Guatemala, and up north along the coast of Belize. A Tropical Storm Warning is now in effect for the Colombian enclave of Isla de Providencia while a Tropical Storm Watch remains in effect for Grand Cayman in the Cayman Island chain. Rainfall amounts are expected to be between 5 to 8 inches in the warned areas as well as the possibility of storm surge flooding in excess of 18 feet. More details are available in the Hurricaneville Storm Report. Further development is possible with Felix over the next 12 to 24 hours.

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The Tropical Atlantic is continuing to stir on this Labor Day evening. Looking at the latest satellite imagery from the region, the tropical wave located midway between the Western portion of the African continent, and the Lesser Antilles has remained weak and disorganized, and it is becoming less likely that it will become a depression. Meanwhile, there continues to be an area of low pressure hanging off the coast of Georgia. Over the weekend, this low was responsible for producing heavy rains in Savannah, Tybee Island, St. Simons Island, and coastal areas of South Carolina. Presently, this low is positioned some two hundred miles or so off the Southeastern coast, and is slowly moving eastward. Finally, there continues to be a series a clouds and showers along the ITCZ to the south of the Cape Verde Islands. Possible development with our low pressure area off the Southeast coast over the next couple days.

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Looking at the African satellite this early Monday evening, there are numerous areas of interest. The first is an area of clouds, showers, and thunderstorms about to depart the West African coast. Strong storms have been detected on the satellite in the coastal countries of Southwestern Mauritania, Southwestern Mali, Eastern Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bisseau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. To the east of that is a thunderstorm complex bringing unsettled weather to the Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Western Nigeria. Meanwhile, further to the East in Central Africa, clouds and showers spread from Southern Chad to the Central African Republic to Northeastern Nigeria.

Near the Horn of Africa, there are showers and storms spreading out from Central Ethiopia into much of Eastern Sudan. Behind that there is a very impressive area of disturbed weather ready to come on shore off the Indian Ocean south of the Arabian Peninsula. The Cape Verde season is picking up in the Atlantic as well it should. We are approaching the peak of the hurricane season, and as expected, shower and thunderstorm activity is rising to a crescendo across the African continent. Elsewhere, tropical formation is not expected over the next 24 hours.

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