Sept. 25, 2007 — Experts predict gusty weather with thunderstorms starting later Tuesday night and continuing throughout Wednesday and into Thursday as a strong tropical wave passes through the area.
"But it doesn't show any signs of significant strengthening at the moment," said Robert Mitchell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Upper-level wind shear across the Mona Passage will prevent development, he said. St. Croix was expected to start getting wind and rain around 8 p.m., with St. Thomas and St. John seeing a turn in the weather around midnight.
The system should start to leave the area by Thursday, with a big improvement by Thursday afternoon, Mitchell said. The Virgin Islands should get one to three inches of rain, as well as gusty winds.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Karen continues on its west-northwest track. As things currently stand, the track should keep it about 600 miles northeast of the Virgin Islands sometime Friday and Saturday, but Mitchell said the territory could get some rain from the outer bands.
"Things are subject to change," he said, noting that a small shift in direction could bring the storm closer to the territory.
Karen developed late Monday out of Tropical Depression 12. By Tuesday morning, the depression grew to a tropical storm. Computer models predict a strong tropical storm with winds of 65 to 70 mph, Mitchell said.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the storm was centered at 11.1 degrees north latitude and 39.9 degrees west longitude, or about 1,430 miles east of the Windward Islands. Winds were at 40 mph with gusts to 50 mph. The barometric pressure stood at 1,005 millibars, or 29.67 inches. It was moving to the west-northwest at 14 mph.
Tropical storm force winds extended outward 45 miles.
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