MIAMI (BNO NEWS) The first tropical depression of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season formed in the western Caribbean on Friday evening, U.S. forecasters said. After passing the Yucatan Peninsula, it will set a course for the Gulf of Mexico. The storm, officially called Tropical Depression One, formed just before 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) on Friday. The Air Force reserve hurricane hunter aircraft investigating the disturbance in the western Caribbean Sea has found a well-defined circulation center, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
As of 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT Saturday), the center of the tropical depression was located approximately 555 kilometers (345 miles) southeast of Cozumel, an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula.
The depression is moving toward the west-northwest near 10 miles per hour, 17 kilometers per hour, said forecaster Brennan. This general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days. Brennan said the depression will reach the Yucatan Peninsula by late Saturday.
Maximum sustained winds are near 55 kilometers (35 miles) per hour, with higher gusts. Some strengthening is forecast, and the depression is expected to become a tropical storm tonight or Saturday, Brennan added.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for the coast of Belize as well as the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Chetumal to Cancun. A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.
After it made landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico as a tropical storm on late Saturday, the storm is expected to weaken back to a tropical depression. Later next week, however, as it enters the Gulf of Mexico, it is forecast to again become a tropical storm.
The storm now poses a serious threat to cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico, where an oil rig caused one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. If it indeed sets a course for the rig, which sank on April 20 after an explosion and subsequent fire, it will take five days for BP to get all the cleanup and retrieval equipment out of harms way.
If tropical depression strengthens into a tropical depression, it will be named Alex.