A Hurricane Watch for Texas as Tropical Depression Harvey Regenerates
A Hurricane Watch and Storm Surge Watch is posted for much of the coast of Texas, as Tropical Depression Harvey treks northwestwards at 9 mph over the Gulf of Mexico. An Air Force hurricane hunter plane found that Harvey had reorganized into a tropical cyclone on Wednesday morning, with a large, disorganized closed surface circulation and top winds to 35 mph. Harvey is expected to intensify into a strong tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane that will bring dangerous flooding rains in excess of 10” to Texas late this week. This Hurricane Watch is the first for any part of Texas since Hurricane Ike in 2008. Wednesday also marks the first time the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has issued an operational Storm Surge Watch. The product was not yet official in 2016, when prototype storm surge watch and warning graphics were produced for Hurricane Matthew along the southeast U.S. coast.
Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning were favorable to very favorable for intensification. Satellite images showed that Harvey was slowly developing, with a modest amount of heavy thunderstorm activity that was growing in areal coverage and organizing into low-level spiral bands. These thunderstorms were not very intense yet, with cloud tops that were relatively warm, indicating that they did not extend high into the atmosphere. There was some dry air on the west side of Harvey, but the storm was beginning to wrap spiral bands laden with moisture into this area, which should allow the storm to wall itself off from any dry air intrusions. High cirrus clouds streaming to the north and northeast of the center showed the presence of a respectable upper-level outflow channel, which was ventilating the storm and helping intensification. Wind shear was light to moderate, 5 - 15 knots, which is favorable for intensification. The atmosphere had a high mid-level relative humidity of 70%, and the ocean was very warm, with sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of 30°C (86°F.)
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/hurricane-watch-texas-tropical-depression-harvey-regenerates
