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By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

July 10, 2012; 5:55 AM

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Save the damaging wind, rough seas and flooding from a tropical storm or hurricane, but many of the Caribbean islands are in need of rain. (Photos.com image)

A lack of central Atlantic tropical disturbances so far has many islands in the Caribbean in need of rain.

Day after day of sunshine and fair weather are certainly good for tourism and the local economy. However, water is getting a little scarce and things are drying up in paradise.

As tropical disturbances continue to roll westward off the Africa coast, they also continue to choke on dry air or are forced to take a more southern route.

A flow of dry air and dust continue to make the environment over the central Atlantic and much of the Caribbean too hostile for the disturbances and the rain they bring.

While it is a bit early to expect a great deal of such activity, usually there is about a system a week rolling in from the east, bringing squalls, but also drenching downpours from the Windward and Leeward islands to Puerto Rico.

Thus far, there have been only a couple of such systems with one hitting Puerto Rico on July 4 and 5. The system managed to bring over an inch of rain to San Juan and snapped a string of 90-degree days that ran since May 30.

Rainfall with the system during the first few days of July was spotty.

According to Tortola, British Virgin Islands weather enthusiast Mahde Said, "Prior to the disturbance we didn't have rain for 26 days and the place remains very hot and very dry."

"The disturbance brought very little rain, but wind gusts to tropical storm force," Said added.

Much of the Caribbean will remain stuck in the same, dry weather pattern for at least the next couple of weeks, but potentially longer.

Typically, the Cape Verde Season ramps up during August and peaks during mid-September.

The Cape Verde Season is the movement of disturbances from Africa, westward across the Atlantic. Many of these features pass near the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa. Some have developed into the most powerful of Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Meanwhile, farther north in the Atlantic, the islands of Bermuda have also been running in a rainfall deficit, due to the lack of disturbances hooking northward from the tropical Atlantic.

The remnants of Debby, combined with a stalled front during late June, managed to bring Bermuda some needed rain, but also contributed to cliff erosion. Between 0.50 and 1.00 inch of rain fell.

Many of the islands, including Bermuda, capture rainfall as they are too small to generate significant stream and river systems to channel the water into reservoirs.

These islands, except for the major Antilles, are also too small to produce air mass thunderstorms and need a significant weather system to bring the rain in, rather than "grow their own."

Many AccuWeather.com meteorologists believe that a "developing" El Niño during the late summer into fall will lead to an abbreviated Atlantic hurricane season with a near-average number of named systems, despite the unusual early pulse of activity.

El Niño tends to produce disruptive wind shear over the central Atlantic, while favoring the development of tropical storms and hurricanes over the Eastern Pacific.

Even with the potential for an El Niño-mitigated Atlantic Season, there could be a several-week period of multiple tropical storms and powerful hurricanes from mid-August into September.