As mentioned in an earlier post, the National Hurricane Center was keeping an eye on a disturbance that was located to the north-northeast of Bermuda. Over the past couple of hours, that disturbance has become a little better organized and is now classified as Subtropical Storm Teresa.
As we approach 4 pm on Friday afternoon, it is apparent that Hurricane Sam is starting to really get his act together, as satellite images are now starting the formation of an eye at the center of the cyclone.
We continue to stay rather active out in the tropics as we have four areas of interest to keep our eyes on. You know about Hurricane Sam already. His next advisory will come out around 4pm.
Maximum sustained winds remain near 75 mph, with higher gusts. Rapid intensification is forecast to resume over the next several days, and Sam is likely to become a major hurricane on Saturday.
As of the 10 pm update, Tropical Storm Sam continues in the process of rapid intensification as wind speeds have increased by another 10 mph and the pressure has dropped by another 3 mb down to 997 mb.
Just as reported in the 10 am advisory post, Tropical Storm Sam has started to rapidly intensify as the maximum sustained winds have increased from 50 to 60 mph and the pressure has dropped from 1003 to 1000 mb.
We know about the formation of Tropical Storm Sam from the post earlier this morning and from Ryan’s midday post, but we still have three other areas of interest even after Peter and Rose have been taken off of the board. The good news is that none of these are a threat to the US Mainland.
As of the 10 am update from the National Hurricane Center, TD-18 has strengthened into Tropical Storm Sam, with maximum sustained winds at 50 MPH. This is the 2nd earliest formation of the 18th named storm in the Atlantic basin, moving ahead of the 2005 hurricane season, and only trailing last year.
We have added Peter and Rose in the past twenty fours hours, and will likely see Sam in the next few days. Odette may even make a comeback.
