We’re not even through the first full week of August and the hurricane season is quickly hitting its stride.
Dexter formed late Sunday between Bermuda and the Carolinas and is getting quickly whisked into the north Atlantic graveyard. Behind it, another system could affect the Carolinas by the end of the workweek with periods of heavy rain while two potent tropical waves will garner our attention for next week.
Dexter moving out
Dexter was a flash in the pan, having formed without much fanfare this weekend and splitting the uprights between Bermuda and the U.S. while accelerating quickly out to sea.
Although Dexter may strengthen with the jet stream flow over the high-latitude waters of the north Atlantic, its days as a tropical cyclone are quickly coming to a close.
Watching Dexter’s shadow for later this week
The same stalled front that spawned Dexter over the weekend will spin up another area of low-pressure this week that will brush the Carolinas by Friday into the weekend.
Some guidance, like the European model, suggest the possibility of a low-grade tropical system taking shape from Thursday into Saturday as the low-pressure area nears the coast. With high-octane waters in this part of the western Atlantic, it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to eke out another named storm.
For now, at least, models aren’t advertising significant development and the upshot regardless will be increasing periods of heavy rains from the South Carolina Lowcountry to the Outer Banks of North Carolina into this weekend.
Upping the ante in the Atlantic next week
Models are keen on developing something more significant next week in the Atlantic. The question is where and from which disturbance?
The first tropical wave we’ll be watching is one moving south of the Cabo Verde islands off Africa today. There’s a wide spread from the outset between our computer models on which part of the tropical wave may develop which results in big disagreements down the road in where it ends up.
The European model locks on to the northern part of the wave and lifts it quickly north toward the central Atlantic this weekend.
On the other hand, the American GFS homes in on the southern part of the wave and keeps it on a more westward trajectory near or just north of the Caribbean islands this weekend.
In both cases, the models aren’t quick to strengthen it, but as the American GFS shows, conditions in the western Atlantic and Caribbean look ripe for development so we’ll want to make sure it bends north and doesn’t keep tracking west.
Regardless, another potent tropical wave will be splashing into the Atlantic from Africa behind it by the end of the week, so even if the first disturbance swings into the open Atlantic, we may be watching this one ride lower and farther west.
Neither wave poses an immediate threat to land and we’ll have some time to track them. I do suspect one of these two systems will eventually make a run at our first Atlantic hurricane, so check back periodically for updates, especially into the weekend and early next week.
CLICK HERE to download the Local 10 Weather Authority’s 2025 hurricane survival guide.
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
