Tropical Storm Gert (2005) - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

A tropical wave entered the Atlantic Ocean from Africa on July 10, and the wave developed into an area of low pressure while passing over Cape Verde. Despite the organization, the low failed to develop into a tropical cyclone due to cool waters on the sea surface and wind shear. However, those unfavorable conditions did not completely destroy the wave, as it continued traveling westward through the Lesser Antilles until July 18. That day, while south of Puerto Rico, the wave split in two; the northern half moved northwest and developed into Tropical Storm Franklin over the Bahamas, and the southern half continued westward, with its associated thunderstorm activity increasing.

On July 22, a new low pressure area developed while the tropical wave was located over the Gulf of Honduras. However, this area of disturbed weather was unable to develop further, because the storm quickly moved over the Yucatán Peninsula. After its one-day passage through the peninsula, the system entered the Bay of Campeche, but lacked any deep convection. This time, though, the wave quickly developed the deep convection it needed to become a tropical cyclone. In part, this was due to the Sierra Madre Oriental enhancing large-scale rotation of the disturbance by forcing air to flow parallel to the mountain range, instead of through it. As a result, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida designated it as Tropical Depression Seven, just 255 miles east-southeast of Tuxpan, Mexico. Early on the July 24, the cyclone was upgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 40 mph (65 km/h) and received the name Gert.

Gert continued to move northwest after becoming a tropical storm, and reached a peak intensity of 45 mph (70 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 1005 mbar (29.68 inHg). Gert made landfall just 6 miles (10 km) to the southeast of Pánuco, still at peak intensity, at 10:00 p.m. CDT (0000 July 25, UTC). However, due to its interaction with land, the storm quickly weakened back to a tropical depression strength early on July 25, and became a remnant low twelve hours after that. Six hours later, just a day after it made landfall, it dissipated over the mountains of central Mexico.