3rd Named Tropical Depression Develops in the Atlantic

Tropical storm Cristobal over southeast Bahamas.
Photo provided by NASA.

A new tropical storm has caught the attention of Meteorologists over the last few days. Tropical storm Cristobal, which is the third tropical storm in the Atlantic, is sitting about 100 miles east off the coast of the central Bahamas. Cristobal is dumping some pretty heavy rain over the central and southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands and is moving slowly. Once it meets with the jet stream and a high pressure system that is sitting in the Central Atlantic ocean, the tropical storm will pick up the pace. The storm is projected to reach hurricane strength by early Wednesday morning, where it will then be a category 1.

Currently Cristobal poses no significant weather threat to the U.S. as models show it will move northeast into the Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard will see some impacts due to the strong winds circulating around the storm since it will be just close enough for the winds to reach the coast. These stronger winds will affect parts of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard to Florida's beaches up until Wednesday. When there are strong winds in and around the coast, high surfs follow and will most likely cause some very minor coastal flooding. The areas that should be most concerned with this threat include the northeast Florida coast, northern Outer Banks of North Carolina, southeast Virginia and possibly the southern Delmarva Peninsula. Strong rip currents from Florida and as far north as the Jersey Shore are another concern that will be monitored as Cristobal moves northeast.

Path of Cristobal up until Thursday.
Photo provided by Weather Underground.