Tropical Trouble And A Cold New England

A big area of ugly weather in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico might
become Tropical Storm Cristobal

They told us this year would be an incredibly active Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season ad it's already off to a busy start.

True, the first tropical systems of the season have not been super strong, but that's typical.

The official Atlantic hurricane season didn't begin until yesterday, but there have been two tropical storms already, Arthur and Bertha, both of which had relatively minor effects on the U.S. Southeast coast during May.

There's now another tropical system bubbling in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. It's a tropical depression, which means it has a real circulation like a tropical storm, though it's too weak to be considered one.

If this thing does become a tropical storm, they'll name it Cristobal.  If wannabe Cristobal does become a tropical storm by June 5, it will be the earliest on record to have three tropical storms in the Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center says the forecast for wannabe Cristobal is uncertain, as it's trapped in a broader circulation in the Bay of Campeche.  It might even dissipate in favor of a new storm, or wannabe Cristobal could just smack into land and dissipate down ther.e

Or, it could be drawn north toward the United States Gulf Coast. If that happens, it's possible the storm could feed off very warm Gulf of Mexico waters and approach hurricane strength, or even possible become a hurricane. Which would be odd for early June. That type of thing normally waits until later in the summer.

Few, if any forecasters expect this thing to get super strong, but that doesn't really matter. Tropical storms, especially slow movers like wannabe Cristobal, can dump torrential rains and cause some pretty extreme flooding.

On the other side of Central America, on the Pacific side, a relative weak tropical storm named Amanda just caused immense flooding and landslides in El Salvador and Guatemala that killed at least 17 people.

The remnants of Amanda are one ingredient that is helping form wannabe Cristobal, by the way.

NEW ENGLAND CHILL

I guess opposites attract in northern New England.

After last week's record heat, record chill descended on Maine, especially in the north. Houlton, Maine this morning got down to 26 degrees, which is that town's all-time record low for the month of June. It was 91 degrees in Houlton on May 27.

Caribou, Maine got to 31 degrees, which was good enough to break a record for the date, but not the entire month.

Clouds sort of kept temperatures up overnight in Vermont last night. However, some gardens in the Green Mountain State were wrecked by frosts yesterday. For instance, it was 29 degrees in Gallup Mills, way up in the Northeast Kingdom, 30 degrees in Island Pond and 31 degrees in South Lincoln.

It'll keep gradually warming up through the rest of the week.






El Salvador and Guatemalaen