If you’re still a bit anxious because of the recent Pearl River flood and graphics of the tropical systems brewing in the Atlantic Ocean are making you even more nervous, you can relax, at least for now.
According to the National Weather Service, there’s no threat of a tropical storm or worse, a hurricane, entering the Gulf of Mexico anytime soon.
Tropical Storm Danielle has veered away from the U.S. and is expected to die in the Atlantic Ocean, but there’s another system of interest.
“It’s a disturbed area,” said Chad Entremont, science and operations officer with the National Weather Service in Jackson. “It has an 80% chance of developing into a depression or storm in the next five days. In the next 48 hours it’s 60%.”
Numbers and graphics such as those are social media fuel, especially considering we’re in what has historically been the peak of hurricane season, but that angry-looking red blotch isn’t cause for concern at this point.
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“The overall weather pattern that would steer it, it would steer it, it would keep it off the East Coast,” Entremont said. “It’s the overall location of high and low-pressure areas.
“The way they’re positioned they’re keeping things away probably for a week to two weeks. Probably into the middle of September, anything would turn before it gets close to the U.S. It’s just not favorable for anything to move into the Gulf.”
Another potential storm is near the west coast of Africa, but it’s so far away, anything could happen. It could become a storm or it could fizzle.
“It could be something or not,” Entremont said. “It’s so far away, it would be some time before it’s close to the area.”
What about local rainfall? August is traditionally a drier month in Mississippi, yet record-breaking rainfall drove the Pearl River to 35.5 feet on the Jackson gauge; 7.5 feet over flood stage and more rain is in the forecast.
“We are in somewhat of a wetter pattern,” Entremont said. “We see better than average chances (for rain) Saturday into next weekend.”
However, Entremont said the rains are expected to be more localized rather than widespread, much like typical summer afternoon storms and rains rather than widespread events.
“Nothing suggests a rain event even close to what we saw last week,” Entremont said. “There shouldn’t be any impact.”
Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or [email protected].
