One thing that’s good about this time of year in the tropics, is that it often is harder for a storm to develop into a powerful hurricane. This has been seen in the case of Hurricane Tomas, which has been downgraded to Tropical Storm Tomas. The storm, which 24 hours ago had maximum sustained winds of close to 100 miles per hour, has had it’s wind power cut in half to just 50 miles per hour.

Despite all this, the National Hurricane Center still predicts Tomas to restrengthen into a hurricane in the coming days. A major category three storm, however is much less likely now then it was just 24 to 36 hours ago, when that’s what predictions suggested. This is good news for Haiti, which seems to be in the direct path of the storm, which the NHC is still predicting to be a hurricane at it’s time of landfall. It is also important to note that we are still a good five days away from landfall, if it were to strike Haiti, meaning the track and intensity are likely to change.

Currently Tropical Storm Tomas is located at 13.8N 67.7W, which puts it about 135 miles to the NE of Curacao. The storm is moving West at approximately 14 miles per hour. Meteorologists expect Tomas to continue to weaken over the next 24 hours or so before restrengthening on Tuesday. All interests in the Caribbean Sea need to monitor this storm closely over the next 5 days or so.