Tropical Cyclone Herold formed over the South Indian Ocean east of Madagascar on Friday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Herold was located at latitude 14.8\u00b0S and longitude 51.9\u00b0E which put it about 510 miles (825 km) northwest of Port Louis, Mauritius.\u00a0 Herold was moving toward the southwest at 4 m.p.h. (6 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 996 mb.<\/p>\n
A distinct low level center of circulation organized quickly in an area of thunderstorms east of Madagascar on Friday and the system was designated as Tropical Cyclone Herold.\u00a0 The circulation around Herold was still organizing and the distribution of thunderstorms was asymmetrical.\u00a0 Many of the stronger thunderstorms developed in bands northwest of the center of circulation.\u00a0 Bands in other parts of the circulation consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.\u00a0 Thunderstorms northwest of the center of Herold were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away from the tropical cyclone.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 85 miles (135 km) from the center of circulation.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Herold will move through an environment that will become increasingly favorable for intensification during the next several days.\u00a0 Herold is currently under a small upper level ridge centered near Madagascar.\u00a0 The ridge is producing southeasterly winds which are blowing toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 Those winds are causing some vertical wind shear and they are probably the reason for the asymmetrical distribution of thunderstorms.\u00a0 However, Tropical Cyclone Herold will move into a region where the upper level winds are weaker during the weekend.\u00a0 Herold will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C during that time period.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Herold will intensify during the next several days and it could intensify rapidly once the inner core becomes better organized.\u00a0 Herold is likely to intensify into the equivalent of a hurricane\/typhoon during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 It could strengthen into the equivalent of a major hurricane during the next 72 hours.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Herold is currently in an area where the steering currents are weak.\u00a0 A subtropical high pressure system over the South Indian Ocean will strengthen during the next several days.\u00a0 The western end of the subtropical high will start to steer Herold toward the east-southeast during the weekend.\u00a0 On its anticipated track the center of Tropical Cyclone Herold could be northwest of Mauritius in less than 72 hours.\u00a0 Herold is likely to be the equivalent of a major hurricane at that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Cyclone Herold formed over the South Indian Ocean east of Madagascar on Friday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Herold was located at latitude 14.8\u00b0S and longitude 51.9\u00b0E which put it about 510 miles (825 km) northwest of Port Louis, Mauritius.\u00a0 Herold was moving toward the southwest at 4 […]<\/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":[1470,1966,84,85,74,1408,1471,1965],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332"}],"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=9332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9333,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332\/revisions\/9333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}