MIAMI _ Calling it an "amorphous blob," hurricane forecasters on Thursday said a tropical depression rolling toward the Windward Islands is not expected to last through the weekend.
In their 11 a.m. EDT advisory, National Hurricane Center forecasters said the storm located about 1,200 miles east of the Lesser Antilles has become less organized with a "deteriorating cloud pattern." The depression had picked up forward speed, moving west, northwest at 21 mph with sustained winds of 30 mph.
Dry, dusty air blowing off the Saharan dessert getting sucked into the storm's east side was keeping the storm from intensifying. Over the next few days as it encounters increasing wind shear, the depression will likely begin to fall apart, forecasters said.
They do not expect the depression to strengthen into a tropical storm and suspect it will fizzle altogether in the next three to four days as it passes north of the Windward Islands and Puerto Rico.
