Tropical Cyclone Carlos strengthened on Sunday as it meandered slowly north of Mauritius.\u00a0 At 10:00 p.m. EST on Sunday the center of Tropical Cyclone Carlos was located at latitude 18.0\u00b0S and longitude 57.9\u00b0E which put it about 160 miles (260 km) north-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius.\u00a0 Carlos was moving toward the east-southeast at 3 m.p.h. (5 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 80 m.p.h. (130 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 987.<\/p>\n
Although Tropical Cyclone Carlos strengthened on Sunday, the circulation is exhibiting some effects of vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Thunderstorms dissipated north of the center of circulation and the strongest thunderstorms are currently forming south of the center.\u00a0 A primary band of storms extends southeast of the center of circulation.\u00a0 A new broken band of showers and thunderstorms is beginning to develop around the northern periphery of the circulation.\u00a0 The thunderstorms south of the center are generating upper level divergence which is pumping out mass to the southeast of the tropical cyclone.<\/p>\n
The environment around Tropical Cyclone Carlos has both favorable and unfavorable factors.\u00a0 Carlos will be moving over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 28\u00b0C which means there is sufficient energy in the upper ocean.\u00a0 However, an upper level ridge east of Tropical Cyclone Carlos is generating northwesterly winds which are blowing across the top of the circulation.\u00a0 The upper level winds are generating moderate vertical wind shear which is inhibiting the development of thunderstorms northwest of the center.\u00a0 The wind shear is contributing to the asymmetrical distribution of the storms around the tropical cyclone and it is inhibiting divergence to the west of Carlos.\u00a0 If the wind shear continues, it will continue to inhibit intensification.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Carlos does have a very well organized low level circulation and it could intensify if the wind shear decreases.<\/p>\n
The steering currents around Tropical Cyclone Carlos are weak, which is why it has not moved much during the past 24 hours.\u00a0 A subtropical ridge east of Carlos is forecast to strengthen and the ridge is likely to steer the tropical cyclone more toward the southwest during the next day or two.\u00a0 On its anticipated track the center of Tropical Cyclone Carlos could be near Mauritius in about 24 hours.\u00a0 Carlos could be approaching La Reunion in 36 hours.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Carlos could be the equivalent of a strong tropical storm or a hurricane when it approaches Mauritius and La Reunion.\u00a0 Carlos could bring gusty winds and locally heavy rain to those locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Cyclone Carlos strengthened on Sunday as it meandered slowly north of Mauritius.\u00a0 At 10:00 p.m. EST on Sunday the center of Tropical Cyclone Carlos was located at latitude 18.0\u00b0S and longitude 57.9\u00b0E which put it about 160 miles (260 km) north-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius.\u00a0 Carlos was moving toward the east-southeast at 3 m.p.h. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,2],"tags":[619,84,85,74,620,618],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3622,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions\/3622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}