Good afternoon everyone. Well, it has been a busy time in the Tropics over the past two weeks, but things really heated up on this Labor Day. Obviously, there is Gustav, which made landfall over the Louisiana coast in the morning near Cocoderie. However, in addition, we are still dealing with Hanna, which rapidly went from a struggling mediocre tropical storm to a minimal hurricane, and now our ninth depression of the season far out in the Central Atlantic.

In addition, there are several other areas of disturbed weather including two moderate tropical waves or areas of low pressure in the Northern Central Atlantic, and a very strong tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa within the past 12 hours or so. This vigorous wave is located several hundred miles to the Southeast of the Cape Verde Islands, and is already showing signs of development. It may become a depression over the next several days. A lot of this activity developed in just the past 6 to 18 hours. Hanna went from a storm to a hurricane during the morning while TD #9 emerged in the late morning on Monday.

Not to say that a depression had not been in the works. Tropical Depression #9 had been in the making for the past several days after coming off the African coast as a very strong wave, and bringing squally weather to the Cape Verde Islands. After having some trouble getting organized shower and thunderstorm activity over the past several days, the low began to get its act together on Sunday night, and that carried over into Monday morning when the NHC indicated that it was poised to become the 2008 season’s next depression in the 5:00 AM Tropical Weather Outlook.

Meanwhile, Hanna could become a threat to Florida, and the Southeastern Coast of the United States, and even perhaps the Gulf Coast, which will be trying to pick up the pieces in the wake of Gustav. Looking at the five day forecast from the National Hurricane Center, Hanna appears to be on track for a Friday afternoon landfall along the Georgia and South Carolina border. The strong subtropical ridge that is currently in place will keep the storm on a Northwest track according to the latest discussion on the system by the NHC. Winds are forecast to be as high as 80 knots, or close to 100 miles per hour, which would make it a Category Two storm. However, now that Hanna is a hurricane, expect those forecast numbers to go up.