Bill no longer a tropical storm as system heads north
Tropical Storm Bill was short lived.
Bill, the second named storm of 2021, weakened to a post-tropical cyclone by Tuesday night, just one day after the storm formed off the coast of North Carolina.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, the storm was located a few hundred miles east of Nova Scotia and southwest of Newfoundland, according to the National Hurricane Center. Bill is slowly moving northeast at 29 mph with maximum sustained winds at 50 mph.
The system is expected to continue to weaken before it eventually dissipates over the open waters of the north Atlantic Wednesday.
“Strong winds associated with a developing southward dip in the jet stream in the Northeast are expected to be enough to...whisk the storm away at increasing speed through the middle of the week,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said earlier Tuesday.
The last system named Bill hit Texas as a tropical storm in June 2015. That tropical storm flooded the region, causing $36 million in damage, according to Accuweather.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a busy hurricane season this year, estimating between 13 and 20 named storms.
Before the week is over it’s possible that Claudette could form over the Gulf of Mexico.
A second system, nestled in the Bay of Campeche off Mexico’s east coast, has an 80% chance of formation in the next five days, according to the hurricane center.
“At present course and speed, this system, which could organize and strengthen, would be near the Windward and Leeward islands of the eastern Caribbean this weekend,” Pydynowski said.
The large trough of low pressure in the Gulf is forecast to become Tropical Storm Claudette later this week as it moves across the central or northwestern Gulf. It could bring heavy rainfall to the U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday, experts said.
“The potential exists later on this week for a brief window of relaxed wind shear across the central Gulf of Mexico, possibly providing a narrow time frame conducive for intensification,” according to AccuWeather.
Meanwhile, a tropical wave formed Monday off the coast of Africa. As of Tuesday night, the hurricane center said showers and thunderstorms associated with the tropical wave diminished, and its chance of developing over the next two to five days dropped to 0%.
After Claudette, the next named storm to form would be Danny.
