Hello, Alberto!

At 10 AM CDT today, the sustained wind speeds in what was Tropical Depression 1 have strengthened to 45 mph, crossing the magic 39 mph threshold to become Tropical Storm Alberto. The projected track is more or less the same as it had been, with the greatest probability having moved only slightly south. While Alberto isn't likely to get much stronger than this, due to the somewhat hostile shear environment, everyone in the white cone should pay attention to this storm. While it won't become a hurricane, and damage will be little to none, this is a "warm up" storm, to think about what to do if this were a Category 5 monster. This will be only the first of many storms of 2006.