Tropical Storm Cindy continued to weaken Sunday due to storm-shredding upper-level wind shear and dry air present over the Atlantic.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said it was “poorly defined” and “barely hanging on” as a tropical cyclone.
Cindy was 370 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, moving northwest at 16 mph with maximum sustained winds at 45 mph.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend out up to 70 miles from Cindy’s center.
According to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Cindy could degenerate into a trough of low pressure by Monday night. There is a slight possibility that the storm could form again after that, forecasters said.
“After Cindy dissipates as a tropical cyclone, there remains support … that Cindy could regenerate farther to the north in several days when the shear begins to abate,” the hurricane center said in a Sunday forecast discussion.
What was Tropical Storm Bret dissipated Saturday.
On Thursday, Bret’s winds were just 4 mph shy of the minimum threshold for a Category 1 hurricane.
Bret brought floods, high winds and dangerous waves to parts of the Caribbean.
Bret and Cindy are the third and fourth official systems of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, with an unnamed January subtropical storm and early June’s Tropical Storm Arlene.
The next named storm to form would be Don.
The hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30.
Experts predict 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes to develop this hurricane season.
A strong El Niño weather pattern is expected during the peak of this season, which can decrease cyclone activity in the Atlantic because of increased vertical wind shear. But ocean temperatures are the highest on record since 1979 based on recent 30-day averages, according to the forecast from Colorado State University released earlier this month.
The unusually warm temperatures could counteract the typically decreased activity during an El Niño.