Tropical Storm Katia

[Update:  Tropical Storm Katia became a Category 1 Hurricane Wednesday evening....]

By now many of you who visit this site have noticed a NOAA Tracking widget in the upper right column of the page for Tropical Storm Katia.

Katia (pronounced KAH-tyah according to the National Hurricane Center) became a tropical storm early Tuesday morning after first forming as a tropical depression south of the Cape Verde Islands Monday morning.

The storm is moving over very warm sea surface temperatures and into an area with weaker winds aloft. These factors have allowed Katia to strengthen into a strong tropical storm as of early today.

Further intensification is expected with the storm potentially becoming a hurricane later today. Katia could become a major hurricane by the upcoming weekend as it passes north of the Lesser Antilles.

So, the big question becomes where is Katia headed and will it have an impact on the U.S.?

Beyond the weekend, Katia is expected to continue on a west-northwest track into the southwestern Atlantic before taking a northerly turn.

While the forecast is for Katia eventually to turn and head northward and potentially out to sea, it is certainly possible that the storm brings some impacts to the East Coast or Atlantic Canada later next week.

Also, keep in mind that If one of these upper troughs or dips in the jet stream digs further into the Midwest, then that could favor a more westerly track for Katia bringing it closer to the East coast.

I am not posting this information to make anyone nervous (especially in light of this past weekend's storm surge from Huirricane "Irene") but we are now in the most active period of this years hurricane season and this storm, just like Irene, bears watching. The good news is that if it does pass near us late next week, we will not be in a period of extremely high tides and we will be well off the new moon.