Tropical Depression Four developed east of the Lesser Antilles on Wednesday night.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Depression Four was located at latitude 12.8\u00b0N and longitude 38.4\u00b0W which put it about 1545 (2485 km) east of the Lesser Antilles.\u00a0 The depression was moving toward the west-northwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 30 m.p.h. (50 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 40 m.p.h. (65 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 1009 mb.<\/p>\n
A larger area of thunderstorms formed and persisted on the western side of a tropical disturbance formerly designated as Invest 94L on Wednesday and the National Hurricane Center classified the system as Tropical Depression Four.\u00a0 The distribution of thunderstorms is still asymmetrical.\u00a0 Most of the stronger storms are developing in the western half of the circulation.\u00a0 The thunderstorms in the western part of the circulation were beginning to generate upper level divergence.\u00a0 There were few thunderstorms in the eastern half of the depression and the vertical structure of the circulation could be tilted to the west with height.<\/p>\n
Tropical Depression Four will be moving through an environment that contains both positive and negative factors for intensification.\u00a0 The depression will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 27\u00b0C.\u00a0 So, there is sufficient energy in the upper ocean to support intensification.\u00a0 An upper level ridge is producing easterly winds which are blowing toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 Those winds could be causing the circulation to tilt toward the west with height.\u00a0 Moderate vertical wind shear could inhibit intensification.\u00a0 Drier air is north of the tropical depression.\u00a0 If the depression remains south of the drier air and if the vertical wind shear does not become too strong, then the depression could strengthen.\u00a0 Alternatively, if the depression pulls in drier air and\/or the vertical shear increases, then the depression could weaken back to a tropical wave.<\/p>\n
The subtropical ridge over the Atlantic Ocean is steering Tropical Depression Four toward the west-northwest.\u00a0 A general west-northwesterly motion is expected for the next several days.\u00a0 The actual track will also have a significant effect on the future intensity of Tropical Depression Four. If the depression moves on a more southerly track, it will stay south of the drier air and it would have a greater opportunity to intensify.\u00a0 If the depression moves farther to the north, it will move into the drier air and will be more likely to weaken,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Depression Four developed east of the Lesser Antilles on Wednesday night.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Depression Four was located at latitude 12.8\u00b0N and longitude 38.4\u00b0W which put it about 1545 (2485 km) east of the Lesser Antilles.\u00a0 The depression was moving toward the west-northwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[395,394,31,20,29,97,723],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188"}],"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=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4189,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions\/4189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}