Ernesto Tracks to North Atlantic, Eastern Pacific Fires Up

At the same time that Hurricane Ernesto is pulling away from the U.S. and Atlantic Canada, those in Hawaii have been put on alert for the possibility of tropical weather impacts in the coming days. Here is a look at what is going on in both the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins.

Latest on Ernesto

After making landfall early Saturday on Bermuda as a Category 1 hurricane, Ernesto lost some of its punch as it moved into the cooler waters of the Atlantic. However, Ernesto was able to regain the status of a hurricane on Sunday afternoon as it moved closer to Atlantic Canada.

The storm is expected to move within 100 miles of the island of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula before continuing to the north-northeast on Tuesday. As of Monday afternoon, the tropical weather maker was spinning about 400 miles to the southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. Ernesto was packing winds of 90 mph at this time.

As the largest city in Newfoundland, St. John's is forecast to see wind gusts of between 40 and 60 mph. The highest gusts of up to 100 mph will be the most likely on Cape Race. The southeastern corner of Newfoundland should expect widespread rainfall amounts of 1 to 4 inches before Ernesto moves out to sea later Tuesday.

Shipping interests in the North Atlantic will want to monitor the progress of this storm on Tuesday and Wednesday. The feature could hit forward speeds of 30 to 40 mph as it cruises along. The current forecast indicates that Ernesto will be a tropical wind and rainstorm as it moves through the North Atlantic and approaches the British Isles region on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) will be watching the remote odds that a non-tropical storm moving over the southeastern U.S. could take on tropical characteristics in the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week. The predicted steering breezes could take this feature to Texas beginning this weekend.

The rest of the Atlantic basin is likely to remain quiet for the rest of the week. A mass of dry and dusty air coming off of Africa will inhibit the chances of tropical development.