Tropical Depression Forms In The Carribean

Q: The depression is moving toward the north-northeast near 10 mph and this motion is expected to continue during the next 24 hours. On this track the storm will be nearing Haiti and the Windward Passage on Friday.

A:Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph, with higher gusts. The depression may become a tropical storm later today. The government of the Dominican Republic has issued a Tropical Storm watch for the Dominican Republic west of Santo Domingo. The Bahamas has issued a tropical storm watch for southeastern Bahamas. Tropical storm watches or warnings may be issued for Jamaica and eastern Cuba later today. For more on Tropical Depression 20 tune to the Weather on the nines Forecast Center. The remnants of Hurricane Dean, now Tropical Depression Dean, have dissipated over Mexico and the heavy rain threat has diminished. The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) secured activation for Dean on Wednesday afternoon at 1915 UTC after commencing operations last Friday. Despite experiencing very poor propagation and noisy conditions on 20 meters, the net managed to provide the latest storm advisories from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to amateurs and listeners in Dean's path. As the storm powered through the Windward Islands, scraped Jamaica, threatened the Cayman Islands, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and finally crossed into Mexico, HWN was in frequent contact with the affected areas to collect real-time weather data from local hams, passing it to the NHC forecasters and informing the affected areas about what to expect next via official bulletins. On Tuesday, Dean made landfall near Costa Maya or Majahual at 0830 UTC as a potentially

catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. Earlier in the week, the storm slammed Jamaica as the eye passed within 50 miles of the South Coast of Jamaica as a Category 4 hurricane. The VoIP Hurricane Net solicited reports from any stations in the affected area or any stations that have contact with the affected area. "We received numerous reports of estimated winds over 100 MPH in Corozal, Belize, with roofs off homes, power, electricity and phone service out in many areas. Similar damage was reported in Chetmual, Mexico from a relay from Connie, NH7IE, from a friend who lives in Chetmual, Mexico," said Rob Macedo, KD1CY, Director of Operations of the VoIP Hurricane Net.