Orlando FL – As of 5 p.m., recon aircraft managed to sample wind speeds inside Gabrielle above 74 mph, warranting the upgrade to hurricane status by the National Hurricane Center.
Central pressure continues to drop steadily, meaning the storm continues to strengthen as it heads mostly northward in the central Atlantic.
Right now the hurricane has sustained winds of 75 mph, and the pressure in the core has dropped roughly three or so millibars since we last received an update 3-6 hours ago. As pressure drops, winds catch up despite a little bit of a lag doing so.
One breaking detail as well; Gabrielle is now forecast to see a brief window of becoming a major hurricane blowing past 111 mph by Tuesday.
Gabrielle has been a trooper during its time spent over the tropics, now pulling northward and gaining latitude as it enters the central Subtropical Atlantic.
Initially starting as a very raggedy, broad area of low pressure, it’s managed to work its way into a favorable corner of the basin and consistent strengthening has begun.
The satellite representation of the storm is a lot better than it was throughout the week last week, and a defined center continues to further organize.
Thankfully, we’re dodging this one too here in Central Florida. In fact everyone in the U.S. will avoid feeling any substantial or even noticeable impacts from our second hurricane of the season. Bermuda should also avoid any major effects from the system, as it stays far to the east of the island.
Being east of Bermuda, it puts our friends out there on the weaker side of the hurricane.
One thing I want to immediately note is despite how quiet and unusually slow this season has been, especially the peak, according to tropical history, we’re nearly right on schedule for our second hurricane of the season which typically comes together into late September.
Behind Gabrielle, September is trying to come alive with not one but now two additional tagged areas of interest by the Hurricane Center. One was previously highlighted last week, but NHC dropped it given chances of development lowered significantly inside that seven day window.
Both are still hit or miss with our global computer models, but especially the tropical wave given a 50% chance of formation within the next week does seem to have the potential of grabbing our next name on the list - Humberto.
All in all, Gabrielle should give us some additional credit for this slow boil of a hurricane season while staying away from major land masses. The Azores of the northeast Atlantic will have to watch the progression of Gabrielle as it hooks hard right headed towards them down the pike as a high end tropical storm or maybe even dissipating hurricane.