Tropical Depression Forms in the Mid-Atlantic

Posted: Aug 1, 2012 3:53 PM by Rob Perillo
Updated: Aug 1, 2012 9:51 PM

A tropical disturbance roughly 810 miles east of the Windward Islands continued to show signs of organization Wednesday afternoon leading the National Hurricane Center to upgrade this system to the 5th tropical depresion of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

TD5 was located roughly near 12.2N 49.0W or about 810 miles east of the Windward Islands. Maximum sustained winds were near 35mph.

This system is moving smartly to the west-northwest at 18mph, but remians a "low-latitude" system putting much of the Caribbean in play for this disturbance this weekend through mid-next week.

Latest tropical models are generally clustered through the Caribbean over the next week with this system possibly impacting the Western Caribbean and perhaps the Yucatan Peninsula mid-late next week.

While little stock can be put into longer range models, the Gulf of Mexico could be potentially threatened by this system late next week into the following weekend.

Since this system is in a relatively favorable environment for development over the next several days this depression not only has tropical storm potential but could become a hurricane down the line. TD5 could become a tropical storm as early as Thursday.

The next named system will be "Ernesto".

Latest National Hurricane Center track of TD5: