Julia emerges in East Pacific after pummeling Central America
Although Julia’s days are numbered, despite surviving a trip from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, the tropical depression could spawn new systems along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts this week, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
Tropical Storm Julia formed in the Caribbean Sea, near the coast of Columbia, on Friday. Julia then strengthened into a hurricane as it tracked westward on Saturday evening in the southwestern Caribbean, before making landfall in Nicaragua less than 12 hours later.
Julia lost wind intensity while over the rugged terrain of Nicaragua and was downgraded to a tropical storm late on Sunday morning. It continued to lose strength on Monday and eventually became a tropical depression near the coasts of El Salvador and Guatemala.
As a budding tropical depression and storm, Julia produced flooding in the southern Caribbean from Trinidad and Tobago to Colombia. Deadly flooding and mudslides in Venezuela were likely associated with Julia's rainfall. As Julia moved westward, Nicaragua and surrounding nations in Central America were slammed by torrential rainfall and wind gusts on Sunday.
Even as the storm is forecast to continue to lose wind intensity while along the Pacific coast, Julia, as a tropical rainstorm will continue the risk of flooding downpours and mudslides from El Salvador and parts of Honduras to portions of Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico through Tuesday.
On Sunday, Julia pushed westward across Nicaragua and the southern part of Honduras, where there are fewer mountains compared to areas farther to the north and to the south in Central America. As a result, the system remained a tropical storm and retained the name Julia near the coast of El Salvador on Monday morning.
Julia is now the eighteenth named tropical system in the East Pacific Ocean Basin this season and is only the second system on record to pass from the Atlantic basin to the Pacific basin with at least tropical storm in intensity. The other system to accomplish the amazing feat was Bonnie earlier this season.
After strengthening into a tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea, Bonnie made landfall at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border and then proceeded to reach the East Pacific Ocean and strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane.
Bonnie's journey across both basins made it one for the record books, journeying more than 6,600 miles and becoming one of only four systems to ever cross over and become a major hurricane.
The above satellite view shows Julia on Monday morning before it became a tropical depression along the coast of El Salvador. (AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue™ Satellite).
AccuWeather meteorologists have been monitoring the post-landfall possibilities for Julia for days.
A small piece of Julia's energy will hover near the southwestern Gulf of Mexico for a time this week. While there is a remote chance this could briefly evolve into a new tropical depression or storm for the Atlantic Basin, the much more likely scenario is for this disturbance to be shredded by stiff winds in the region. If the system were to become a named storm on the Atlantic side, it would be called Karl.
Meanwhile, on the Pacific side, there is a slightly better chance of another system to form off the coast outside of Julia's old moisture and circulation. If this occurs and it evolves into a tropical storm it would be named Roslyn.
There is a slight chance that a brand new system could brew in the Caribbean and wander close to parts of the Gulf Coast, or the waters east of Florida, during the latter third of October.
This time of the year, warm waters in the western Caribbean are a typical breeding ground for tropical systems in early October. Although this is not the case this week, the weather pattern during this time of year tends to favor tropical systems tracking northward to the Gulf Coast and occasionally along or just off the Eastern Seaboard.
AccuWeather meteorologists warn that residents in hurricane-prone areas should stay vigilant as the month of October continues, as October is responsible for some of the most notorious Atlantic hurricanes in history.
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