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Storm Chris may not become hurricane

Posted on: Thursday, 3 August 2006, 02:25 CDT

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Chris weakened on Thursday and forecasters said they did not expect it to become the season's first hurricane over the next several days as it headed west toward U.S. oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

At 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), Chris was about 115 miles (185 km) north-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and appeared to be heading west near 11 miles per hour (18 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

That track would bring it north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and across Cuba by the weekend.

Its top sustained winds had slowed to near 55 mph (90 kph) and the system was become disorganized, its center moving away from its thunderstorm activity. Tropical storms become hurricanes if such winds reach 74 mph (119 kph).

"Currently, we're not anticipating or forecasting Chris to become a hurricane in our last five-day forecast that we issued," Michelle Mainelli, a hurricane specialist at the center, told Reuters. "... It's under a little bit of a hostile environment right now."

The Bahamas issued a hurricane watch for the Turks and Caicos islands and for the southeastern Bahamas, meaning hurricane conditions could be expected within 36 hours.

A tropical storm warning, indicating the arrival of tropical storm conditions within 24 hours, was in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. A tropical storm watch was up for much of the northern Dominican coast.

Chris' forecast path, although subject to considerable uncertainty, could take it into the Gulf on Monday and potentially again threaten New Orleans, which was decimated last year by monster Hurricane Katrina.

Mainelli noted that Chris would be further weakened if it travels as expected over the mountainous terrain of Cuba.

Experts have predicted this year could see another active Atlantic hurricane season with several major storms though nothing like the record number seen in 2005. Chris was the third tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic season.

Oil and natural gas prices had risen on the threat to drilling platforms and exploration rigs in the Gulf, where the waters are especially warm -- as they were last year when they fueled Hurricanes Katrina and Rita before they slammed into the Louisiana and Texas coastlines.

The hurricanes of 2005 shut a quarter of U.S. crude output and sent oil prices to record highs.

Forecasters have predicted up to 17 tropical storms and hurricanes this year. Last year saw a record 28, including Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Katrina killed more than 1,300 people.

(Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami)

Source: REUTERS

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