Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, have revised their predictions about a tropical disturbance which has now entered the south-central Caribbean Sea.
Initial projections indicated the system was likely to develop into Tropical Storm Bonnie by Tuesday 28 June, and then strengthen into the first hurricane of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season on Saturday 2 July.
The system poses no immediate threat to the Cayman Islands.
Although the system is producing tropical-storm-force winds, in excess of 30mph, it is travelling too fast to develop properly.
The latest weather forecast which was released 11am on Thursday, suggests the system will form into a tropical storm later today as it approaches the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Then, on Monday when it arrives in the Pacific Ocean, forecasters say it is likely to develop into a Category 1 hurricane.
In its weather outlook, the NHC stated that system was off the northern coast of Colombia, moving westward at 20mph and generating maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour with thundershowers.
In its weather bulletin, the NHC said, “The disturbance has not become significantly better organized since yesterday with a large curved convective band over the northern portion of the system. Some limited deep convection is forming near the location of the low-level vorticity maximum, which is where a center is expected to form.”
The bulletin continues, “However, visible satellite images and surface observations along the coast of Colombia indicate that the system still has not developed a well-defined center of circulation, so the disturbance will be kept as a potential tropical cyclone for now.”
However, the NHC has issued tropical storm warnings for San Andres, Colombia, the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua throughout Friday. Those warnings have been extended for the Pacific coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua come Saturday.
For the latest information on storm activity in the Cayman Islands, as well as information on how to prepare for hurricane season, visit the ALT Storm Centre.
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