Kate near hurricane status, west caribbean to be monitored..

[WXBUFFJIM]

Good Monday everyone. Tropical storm Kate has stengthened slowly over the past 12 hours. Kate has maximum sustained winds now at near 70 mph with higher gusts. No threat is anticipatd over land areas. Although Kate could linger for awhile.

At 11 AM EDT, the center of tropical storm Kate was located about 835 miles southwest of Lajes in the Azores. If you're plotting at home that would be near 28.8 north latitude, 37.6 west longitude.

Kate is moving towards the northeast at nar 20 mph and this motion is expected to continue for the next day or two along with a decrease in forward speed.

Maximum sustained winds with Kate have increased to 70 mph with higher gusts. Kate could strengthen slowly over the next 24 hours. Thus Kate may become the sxith hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season later today or tonight.

Tropical storm force winds with Kate extend outward up to 230 miles from the center. Minimum central pressure is estimated at 991 mb or 29.26 inches.

Meanwhile in the western Caribbean, convection has flared up this morning. There seems to be a broad area of low pressure with this. Any tropical development would be very slow and it's still not considered a tropical depression as of yet. Certainly worth watching though. Heavy rains from this tropical entity will likely strike south central Florida over the next several days as it interacts with a stalled out frontal boundary. Rainfall totals could exceed 6 inches, which is not good news given the huge surplus we're talking about across the southern and central sunshine state. Miami has a surplus for the year of over 10 inches. Not good news at all. Stay tuned.

Jim

[JCT777]

Thanks for the update, Jim.