Tropical Storm Karina swirling in East Pacific
After almost a week of quiet conditions following Tropical Storm Julio, an area of disturbed weather hundreds of miles off the southwest coast of Mexico became Tropical Depression 16-E on Saturday night. By early Sunday morning, it had strengthened to Tropical Storm Karina.
The tropical storm had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was located 885 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California as of 2 a.m. PDT Wednesday. Present movement is to the west-northwest at 10 mph.
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Karina will continue to track to the northwest into Thursday. This path will take the storm through the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean and into an area of low to moderate wind shear.
Wind shear is the change in speed or direction of the wind at different levels in the atmosphere and plays a strong role in the development and organization of tropical systems.
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This environment is forecast to allow Karina to maintain tropical storm status through midweek.
"Karina will continue to track away from the western coast of Mexico, and will not bring any direct impacts to land," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.
Shipping interests should monitor this system into Thursday to avoid the dangers of tracking through downpours, strong wind gusts and rough surf.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic tropical basin remains active as forecasters continue to track Paulette, Sally, Teddy and Vicky.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
