Dolly Finally Forms

Well, it's finally official. The tropical low that the National Hurricane Center had been tracking all week has finally become the season's fourth tropical storm, Dolly. As of 5PM, Dolly was located about 230 miles SE of Cozumel, Mexico. She is packing winds of 45 mph, and will dump several inches of rain all across the Caribbean. Dolly will likely make landfall on the Yucatan on Monday before crossing into the Gulf of Mexico later in the day. Latest models indicate that Dolly will gain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the gulf before making it's second landfall in the middle part of the week.

(Rainbow IR satellite image of Dolly above produced by NOAA)

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Cristobal is impacting the Carolina coastline. Cristobal is a poorly defined system that currently lacks significant thunderstorm activity. However, Cristobal may bring rain to the East Coast before turning up the Gulf Stream and away from land. If you are heading down the shore be careful of dangerous rip currents associated with the system.

Also, we can finally say goodbye to former Hurricane Bertha. Bertha finally lost its tropical characteristics on Sunday over the cold waters of the extreme north Atlantic. Bertha formed way back on the 3rd of July as a weak tropical depression. Eventually Bertha reached hurricane status and topped out as a powerful category three hurricane on the 8th. Bertha weakened over the open waters as she turned northward and made landfall in Bermuda before finally heading out to sea.

I will continue to blog about the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season all the way through November 30th and beyond. For additional hurricane information check out the NHC's newly remodeled site www.nhc.noaa.gov