On Friday, Hurricaneville had indicated that conditions were beginning to become more active in the Tropical Atlantic.  Four disturbances had developed throughout the Western Atlantic, and two of them showed signs of perhaps becoming a tropical cyclone over the next few days.

Later on that day, the Tropical Atlantic had its sixth tropical depression of the season, which became Tropical Storm Franklin early Saturday morning some 460 miles to the North-Northeast of the resort island of Bermuda off the East Coast of the United States.  Franklin, which was actually part of an old frontal boundary off the Southeast coast of the United States, didn’t have as much promise as the two stronger waves in the Central and Eastern Atlantic, but it still managed to become a named storm.

Within 18 hours, Franklin was no more.  The storm moved over the cooler waters of the North Atlantic, and lost its tropical characteristics on Saturday night. However, right on its heels was one of the two promising disturbances becoming the seventh depression of the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season.  Located some 360 miles to the South-Southeast of Bermuda, the depression generated a Tropical Storm Watch for the island late Saturday night.

Starting out with pressures as high as 1011 millibars, or 29.86 inches of Hg, it took 15 hours for the depression to get better organize and evolve into the seventh named storm of the season.  By the mid-afternoon on Sunday, Tropical Storm Gert had winds of only 40 miles per hour and a minimum central pressure of 1009 millibars, or 29.80 inches.  Located some 275 miles to the South-Southeast of Bermuda, Gert was moving to the North-Northwest at 7 miles per hour.  The Tropical Storm Watch that went into effect on Saturday night had already been upgraded to a Tropical Storm Warning.

The motion of the storm is expected to turn more toward the north by late Sunday night into Monday putting the storm very close to the island by early Monday morning.   Over the past three hours, Gert has gradually strengthened with its pressure falling another millibar to 1008, or 29.77 inches of Hg while its maximum sustained winds have increased to 45 miles per hour as of the 5:00 PM EDT Advisory.  Peak wind gusts are estimated to be at 55 miles per hour.  The storm continues to approach Bermuda.

Now located some 255 miles to the South-Southeast of Bermuda, Gert has picked up a bit of forward momentum as well with movement to the North-Northwest at 8 miles per hour.  Gert is a small system at this time with tropical storm force winds extending some 60 miles from the center.  The strongest winds are mostly in the eastern half of the storm.  The National Hurricane Center has been issuing advisories on this system every three hours so we’ll see another one issued around 8:00 PM EDT on Sunday night.