NHC Following 2005 Season’s First Tropical Depression

Barely a week after the official start of the 2005 storm season, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center has started posting bulletins on the progress of tropical depression one, which it called a “poorly-organized depression” that is slowly moving northward over the Northwest Caribbean.

A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the provinces of Pinar Del Rio and the Isle of Youth in Western Cuba. But the NHC also indicated that “interests elsewhere in the northwestern Caribbean should closely monitor the progress of this system.” According to its charts the disturbance will likely skirt the West Coast of Florida, coming ashore over Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama by this weekend.

The depression is moving toward the north at around 6 mph (9 kph), which is “expected to continue with some increase in forward speed during the next 24 hours.” Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph. (55 km/hr) with higher gusts, “mainly in rain bands to the north and east of the center.”

The NHC forecasts some strengthening during the next 24 hours, and noted that the “depression could become a tropical storm later today.”