Tropical Storm Harvey To Reach Yucatan Peninsula Tuesday
By Drew Lerner
Kansas City, August 17 (World Weather Inc.) – Tropical Storm Harvey formed in the western tropical Atlantic Ocean Thursday and was expected to track into the Caribbean Sea Friday and reach the Yucatan Peninsula by Monday. The storm may break up a little sooner than that if it 
interacts with the Honduras and Nicaragua coast before reaching Belize and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
At 2000 EDT, the center of the storm was located near 12.9 north, 56.5 west or 205 miles east of Barbados moving westerly at 18 mph and producing a maximum sustained wind speed of 40 mph. Tropical storm force wind speeds (greater than 40 mph) were occurring out 35 miles from the storm center.
Harvey is moving a little too fast to develop as significantly as once predicted by the U.S. National Hurricane Center and the land interaction with Central America that is possible this weekend will further impact the system making it difficult for the storm to survive its trek across the Yucatan Peninsula early next week. Nevertheless, Harvey is expected to intensify over the next two days, especially after crossing the Windward Islands and entering the Caribbean Sea Friday. Rainfall of 2.00 to more than 4.00 inches will accompany the storm as it races through the Windward Islands Friday and only a minor amount of wind and flood damage is expected as the system moves across the region rather quickly.
The longer range forecast for the storm continues to perpetuate a west to west northwesterly track across the southern and western 
Caribbean Sea with land interaction with Honduras and possibly northeastern Nicaragua as early as Monday afternoon before reaching the Yucatan Peninsula as a very weak storm Tuesday. Heavy rain is expected to impact a part of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula early next week that may end up causing some local flooding.
Damage to sugarcane, rice, coffee and other crops is not likely to be significant once the storm reaches Central America and/or Mexico, but a minor amount of damage will be possible. Earlier today, the National Hurricane Center had predicted Harvey would reach hurricane intensity this weekend, but the latest advisory has weakened the storm’s anticipated strengthening. The storm should be closely monitored.
In the meantime, Tropical Storm Gert dissipated as a significant tropical storm over the northwestern Atlantic Ocean this evening. Its last position was 860 miles east of Halifax, Nova Scotia at 44.8 north, 46.0 west. The storm will continue moving to the east northeast as a mid-latitude storm system over the next several days.
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