A
system off the coast of Africa, which the NHC had been
monitoring for several days, was upgraded to tropical depression
status on August 21 and designated as Tropical Depression Four.
Consequently, a tropical storm warning was immediately issued
for the Cape Verde islands, as the system threatened to pass
over or near the southern part of the archipelago. However, the
system failed to strengthen into a tropical storm before passing
the chain of islands, and the warning was discontinued the
following morning.
The depression was upgraded to a tropical storm and was named Debby late on August 22. While it had been expected to strengthen into a hurricane, this never occurred and Debby weakened into a tropical depression on August 26. It continued to the north and lost tropical characteristics on August 27.
On
about July 26, a vigorous tropical wave
formed off the coast of Africa and slowly
tracked westward. It slowly developed due to
poor environmental conditions and it became
a tropical depression late on July 31 about
160 miles (260 km) east of Antigua. The
depression soon strengthened further and was
named Tropical Storm Chris six hours later.
National Hurricane Center forecasters
dismissed some computer models, which
dissipated Chris quickly, as they did not
have a handle on the strength of the storm.Tropical Storm Chris moved to the northwest and gradually strengthened before reaching its peak strength on August 2 with winds of 65 mph (100 km/h), when it was to the northeast of the United States Virgin Islands. The storm was forecast to strengthen further and become a hurricane as it moved into the Bahamas.
In response to the storm's projected path into the Gulf of Mexico, prices for crude oil rose on the New York Mercantile Exchange in London. Natural gas prices rose considerably in New York Mercantile Exchange electronic trading on August 2. Anticipation of a threat to supply by a potential Hurricane Chris coupled with high demand during an ongoing heat wave are cited as reasons for the price move. On August 2 approximately 600 tourists evacuated the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra as tropical storm warnings had been issued. Cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean re-routed their ships to avoid the storm.
In Puerto Rico, rainfall from the storm caused the Fajardo River to overflow its banks. The overflown waters temporarily closed a highway in the northeastern portion of the island. Rainfall reached up to 2 inches (50 mm) across portions of Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, and eastern Cuba, and reached 4 inches (100 mm) in some mountainous areas. Source.
Tropical Storm Beryl (2006)
In
mid-July, a front moved off the east coast of the United
States and stalled, spawning a series of low pressure areas.
Because steering currents were weak, the most southerly
disturbance slowly drifted to the south, and gradually
became more organized a few hundred miles east of the North
Carolina coast. On the morning of July 18, the low pressure
area was designated the second tropical cyclone of the
season, ending more than a month of inactivity in the
Atlantic Basin. That afternoon, the depression was upgraded
to Tropical Storm Beryl. Intensity: 60 mph (95 km/h),
1001 mbar
Beryl continued moving to the north until it turned to the northeast on July 20. Beryl paralleled the East Coast of the United States and crossed over Nantucket island before becoming extratropical southwest of Nova Scotia on July 21. Source.
On
June 10, an area of disturbed weather associated with a
broad low pressure area off the coast of Belize organized
over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and became the
first tropical depression of the season. Southwesterly
vertical wind shear was a constant companion to this system,
but as it moved closer to Florida, the depression
strengthened into a tropical storm on the morning of June
11. Passing over the warm deep water of the Loop Current
allowed accelerated development, and the cyclone's maximum
sustained winds increased to its peak strength of 70 mph
(115 km/h), just shy of hurricane strength. Subsequent
weakening occurred as it moved over the cooler waters of the
continental shelf. Intensity:70 mph (110 km/h),
995 mbar
Alberto made landfall midday on June 13, about 50 miles (85 km) southeast of Tallahassee, Florida. Alberto brought a storm surge of five feet to the Big Bend area of the Florida coastline, flooding areas of Cedar Key and Crystal River. The large system was slow to weaken, moving across Georgia and the Carolinas before being downgraded to a tropical depression early on June 14. Alberto became an extratropical storm that morning while quickly moving towards the coast. Ex-Alberto strengthened rapidly offshore New England and the Canadian Maritimes, becoming an oceanic storm by the afternoon of June 15, 2006. Source.
