HOUSTON – Tropical Storm Hanna formed Monday morning just off the coast near the border of Nicaragua and Honduras bringing a sunrise surprise.
We have been following the rather disorganized remnants of last week's TD No. 9 over the weekend as is moved slowly southeast over the Caribbean.
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The past 24 hours the wind shear let up enough to allow the system to become a small, but well-organized tropical cyclone. It reminds me a bit of Humberto which formed suddenly off the coast south of Galveston in 2007.
Hanna is moving slowly toward the southwest and the center will be over land later Monday and will slowly dissipate over the next several days. However, because of its slow movement, some locations will receive over a foot of rainfall through Tuesday. The more mountainous areas can expect severe flash flooding and mudslides until the cyclone completely dissipates.
Hanna's rains will be effect some of the same areas that received catastrophic flash flooding from Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
If you can remember the forecasts for TD No. 9 last week, the National Hurricane Center had carried the forecast track eastward into the Caribbean in anticipation that redevelopment might occur. A good example of why we watch these otherwise benign looking disturbances very carefully during the hurricane season.