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Caribbean Wave Worries Forecasters More Than Nana

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2008

TAMPA - Tropical Storm Nana, which formed Sunday afternoon in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, may not last the day as a storm, but another could take its place in the Caribbean Sea.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said today that winds above Nana are disrupting the storm and are likely to continue into Tuesday or Wednesday. That may be enough to not only blunt further development, but also to weaken Nana into an area of low pressure.

In their morning analysis, forecasters said the storm is misshapen and may already have weakened below tropical storm strength. Intensity models are almost universal in quickly weakening Nana.

Track forecasts keep Nana or what will be left of the storm out in the distant Atlantic.

But closer to Florida, a tropical wave forecasters have been watching the past several days could become the season's next depression or tropical storm before Tuesday.

Winds, which were hindering any development, are expected to diminish through Tuesday, allowing the wave to become better organized. The hurricane center said the disturbance has a high chance of developing at least into a depression.

The wave is several hundred miles southwest of Puerto Rico and is moving slowly west-northwest. A hurricane hunter aircraft is scheduled to fly through the area later today.

Track forecast models mostly have the disturbance heading off to the northeast and out of the Caribbean, but they are widely scattered.

If the disturbance becomes a storm, it would be called Omar.

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