Invest 91L Fizzles as NHC Expects No Tropical Development This Week

Invest 91L, a tropical wave in the central Atlantic, has lost its chance of developing into a tropical cyclone due to hostile atmospheric conditions including dry air, Saharan dust, and vertical wind shear, which disrupted thunderstorm formation and prevented the system from consolidating. Initially considered to have a medium to high chance of development, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) lowered its formation odds to zero as the system weakened and became disorganized. Despite no longer posing a tropical development threat, Invest 91L is expected to bring some rainfall to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico midweek, with precipitation estimates around one to two inches. The system's westward drift toward the Lesser Antilles continues, but forecasters do not expect new tropical systems to form in the next seven days, even as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches its climatological peak. If development had occurred, the storm would have been named Gabrielle. The NHC and meteorologists emphasize that this case exemplifies how environmental factors can overwhelm otherwise favorable ocean temperatures for cyclone formation.