Eye on the Tropics

Franklin becomes the first hurricane of the season: second Mexico landfall tonight

By Irene Sans, WFTV.com
By Irene Sans, WFTV.com
Franklin becomes the first hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic season on Wednesday afternoon. It approaches the State of Veracruz in Mexico and will be making landfall Wednesday evening. 
Hurricane hunters have been flying the storm all day on Wednesday recorded winds at 75 mph, officially bringing it to a Category One Hurricane. They will fly the system one more time tonight before it makes landfall. 
It is possible that Franklin could strengthen a bit more as conditions are favorable for it to gain a bit more strength. The storm will make its second and final landfall in Mexico around midnight Thursday. 
Franklin made its first landfall Monday evening in the Yucatan Peninsula, specifically in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It was a strong tropical storm, luckily only brought power outages and no deaths or injuries were reported.
Once it reached the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico Franklin has become better organized and its eye started to redevelop. 
THREATS
Mexican states of Tabasco, northern Veracruz, northern Puebla, Tlaxacala, Hidalgo,Queretaro and eastern San Luis Potosi will experience torrential rains. 
The main threats for Veracruz and the surrounding states are high rainfall, which can trigger land
slides. Between 4 and 8 inches of rain are possible, with isolated amounts above 15 inches. These amounts could also bring life-threatening flash floods. 

Veracruz is already feeling tropical storm-force winds, and the winds will continue to increase tonight as it gets close to land

Storm surge is also a concern as water levels will increase by as much as 4 to 6 feet above normal tide levels mainly north of where it makes landfall. Destructive large-wave action is also expected along the beaches, extending southward to the Bay of Campeche.

Water temperatures in the western Gulf of Mexico are in the mid- to upper 80s, serving as fuel to a storm.

Franklin does not represent a threat to Florida or the U.S. Gulf states.

>>Watching the next tropical wave

As we go upslope in the season, the tropics are showing more signs of activity. The wind shear seems to be generally relaxing a bit more. Lack of wind shear allows for tropical systems to become better organized by not disturbing their structure in the upper-levels flow, allowing a natural growing flow.

Water temperatures are warm enough serving as fuel to feed the systems -- in at least  the
mid-80s across much of the Atlantic and Caribbean basins.

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The rest of the tropics: The tropical wave

A tropical wave over 2,000 miles away from Florida continues to crawl westward. This disturbance is fighting dry air and it is not likely to develop further in the short term over the Central Atlantic Ocean. We will monitor the evolution of this next tropical wave and bring you prompt updates on
WFTV.com, Eyewitness News and across all of our social media platforms.

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Irene Sans

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