The tropical wave that the National Hurricane Center has been monitoring in the Southern Caribbean officially strengthened into Tropical Depression Nine Friday morning.
Details on the new tropical depression as of the 10am Friday update can be found below:
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center note that TD Nine kept a well-defined center of circulation over the past 18 hours, and shower and thunderstorm activity near the center became more evident overnight. This essentially allowed the system to officially become the ninth tropical system of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season.
?UPDATE ON NEWLY FORMED TD #9?
TD #9 has formed in the Caribbean and is forecast to strengthen as it moves north. It likely becomes a hurricane by Mon. Models have come into good agreement of the system moving towards Florida during the middle of next week. No impacts on TX. pic.twitter.com/WEhasvOg9S
As the disturbance churns over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and enters an environment more favorable for additional development, it is expected to strengthen this weekend and next week. The current forecast calls for Tropical Depression Nine to strengthen into a tropical storm over the next 24 hours, before potentially strengthening into a hurricane by early next week. If/when the system does strengthen into at least a tropical storm, the next name up-for-grabs on the official list of names for the season is Hermine.
The next name up for grabs on the 2022 list of storm names in the Atlantic is Hermine.
The disturbance is currently expected to track through the Caribbean this weekend before turning to the north early next week, where it could then impact the far eastern reaches of the Gulf. Hurricane Hunters are slated to fly into the system late Friday morning to gather better measurements and data to put into computer forecast models going forward. This is currently not a concern for Texas, but something we’ll continue to monitor as the system becomes better organized over the weekend.
We’ll keep eyes on it! Updates can be found on-air, online, and on your Weather Authority App.