Tropical Storm Gamma

TD-27 died, but gave it's life to form Gamma.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/at200527.disc.html
the remnants of Tropical Depression
Twenty-Seven have reformed into a broad circulation elongated
northeast to southwest. The aircraft reported maximum flight level
winds of 49 kt at 1500 ft just north of roatan island...along with
two spots of 45 kt winds north of the center. Based on this...
advisories are re-initiated on this system as Tropical Storm Gamma
with 35 kt winds. While satellite imagery shows the cyclone is
slowly getting better organized...the convective tops near the
center have warmed during the past several hours. The cirrus
outflow is good in the north semicircle and poor to restricted
elsewhere.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-11-18-tropicalstorm-gamma_x.htm?csp=24

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Gamma drifted north along the coasts of Belize and Honduras on Saturday and was likely to turn onto a path that could threaten South Florida this coming week, but it was not expected to gain much strength.

The storm already had caused flooding and landslides in Honduras that killed at least two people and prompted the government to evacuate hundreds from coastal towns.

Gamma, the 24th storm of the busiest hurricane season on record, had top sustained wind near 45 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in Miami.

Gamma was expected to speed up and turn northeast on Sunday, sending it across the northeastern Caribbean and toward western Cuba, meteorologists said. On that forecast path, Gamma would cross Cuba and approach the Florida Keys island chain on Monday.



That path seems similar to the one taken by Hurricane Wilma, which tore across the southern portion of the state on Oct. 24, killing 21 people and causing widespread damage.

<snip>

Oh, just ANOTHER Tropical Storm. It's not even a hurricane. **YAWN**

There will have to be a lot of wind shear to prevent it from strengthening into a cat-1 hurricane. Ideal conditions could possibly kick it up to cat-3 -- but fortunately, conditions are seldom ideal for anything.

There have been tropical storms in the Atlantic region as late as late-December, and I believe that two have formed post-season in the past decade. There is no such thing as "normal" anymore, although vigilance (mainly through more aggressive meteorology) will help take a lot of the danger out of this change.

--p!