Gaston strengthened back into a hurricane late Saturday evening in the central Atlantic.
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As of Saturday afternoon, odds of development were down to 30 percent within the next 48 hours and 40 percent within the next five days.
The Met Office’s website says that from Friday the United Kingdom and particularly north-west of England could expect heavy rain.
As has been the theme of Invest 99L, it’s path after it passes South Florida is uncertain.
The storm’s track affects how much nasty weather could come over Tampa Bay, but the bay area won’t feel any impacts until at least Monday or Tuesday.
We were nearly ready to announce a time of death for “99L” on Thursday, but 18 years in this business and even more tracking systems like these have taught me things can change in a hurry in the tropics.
Regardless of development, gusty winds and locally heavy rainfall will likely spread into parts of South Florida and the Florida keys over the weekend.
An update from the NHC on the area of low pressure located west of Bermuda said, “Shower and thunderstorm activity has increased during the past few hours in association with an area of low pressure located about 250 miles west of Bermuda”.
If you watch the weather during hurricane season chances are good you’ve seen many of them before, but didn’t know you were looking at them.
This means periods of rain are still likely for portions of south Florida this weekend, with occasional breezes, but significant intensification is unlikely before reaching the peninsula. However, this may soon change as the system moves into an environment with warmer water and less wind shear.
Experts also said that Gaston may become a major hurricane classified as Category 3 or maybe even higher.
If it is named, it will be called Hermine.
A tropical disturbance called Invest 99L still has a favorable chance of strengthening, but computer models continue to disagree where the weather system is headed as it nears Florida.
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On average, about 8 to 12 of these become a tropical storm or hurricane when clusters of showers and thunderstorms begin to take on a counter-clockwise circular structure with increasing winds.
