Barbados Weather Service spots nascent hurricane season’s first tropical wave

he Barbados Weather Service has marked a disturbance near Africa as the first tropical wave of this year. NHC has not yet identified any tropical wave, but this area is a convective area associated with the monsoon trough in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). ·

The monsoon trough entered the Atlantic through the coast of Guinea- Bissau near 12N16W and continues southwestward to 07N21W. The ITCZ extends from 01S17W to 02S45W. Scattered moderate to isolated strong convection is observed south of 02N and west of 25W.

A subtropical ridge over the western Atlantic dominates the Gulf of Mexico, supporting moderate to fresh easterly winds over the much of the basin, with the strongest winds occurring off NW Yucatan. Moderate seas are prevalent across the basin, except for slight seas in the NE Gulf. A few showers are affecting the NW Gulf waters and no deep convection is evident elsewhere.