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Hurricane forecasters monitor possible development
Tue May 27, 2008 3:14pm BST
NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - While the official start to the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season remains nearly a week away, weather forecasters are seeing signs of possible development early this week.
"AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center meteorologists are monitoring conditions in the tropics that could lead to low pressure development," the forecaster said in a weather blog Tuesday.
Areas of particular interest are the western Caribbean and the region near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, according to a website posting.
AccuWeather's climatologist Rob Miller said a tropical depression or storm could form later this week. Miller explained that a weak area of low pressure in the far eastern Pacific just to the south of Guatemala was drifting east and could link up with a tropical wave over the central Caribbean.
The combination of the wave and low pressure system could form the first tropical activity of the season.
Miller said it could drift into the southern or central Gulf of Mexico by early to middle next week.
In addition, forecasters at Weather Underground said their "most reliable global computer weather forecast models" have been predicting the development of a low pressure system near or over Central America by Friday.
"Given the persistence in the models in developing this low, we need to be alert to the possibility of a tropical depression forming in either the Western Caribbean or Eastern Pacific, on either side of Costa Rica and Nicaragua," according to a posting.
Weather Underground added it was still uncertain which ocean basin a storm might form in and whether or not there would be a tropical wave around to help kick off development.
However, several models showed a Central American low pressure area that could move northward towards the Gulf of Mexico, and wind shear that could fall enough to allow a tropical depression to form should the low's center emerge over water.
The 2008 Atlantic season is forecast to be active, with as many as nine hurricanes expected to form, according to U.S. government forecasters.
Other forecasters have called for anywhere from six to 8 hurricanes and 11 to 16 named storms. (Reporting by Eileen Moustakis and Scott DiSavino in New York; Additional reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami; Editing by John Picinich)
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