Tropical Trouble: Four storms you should know about

It's been a rough few days in the tropics. An especially quiet Atlantic hurricane season is finally heating up a bit.

Here's a rundown on four storms you should know about in the tropics.

Tropical Storm Gonzalo: Gonzalo is winding up near Puerto Rico today and expected to become a hurricane in the next 24 hours.

Gonzalo is expected to track northward and reach hurricane status, with winds in excess of 100 mph. Gonzalo should pass east of the Bahamas but may threaten Bermuda this weekend.

Weather Underground hurricane guru Jeff Masters elaborates on the uptick in tropical activity.

For the first time since 2013, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is issuing simultaneous advisories for two Atlantic named storms, thanks to the formation of Tropical Storm Gonzalo on Sunday afternoon.Satellite loops and Martinique radar showed on Sunday afternoon that Gonzalo was well-organized with plenty of spin, spiral bands, and a modest amount of heavy thunderstorm activity that was increasing in areal extent and intensity. Water vapor satellite loops showed a good degree of dry air surrounding Gonzalo, but with wind shear a light 5 - 10 knots, this dry air was not substantially impeding development. Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) were warm, near 29°C (84°F). The 2 pm Sunday run of the SHIPS model predicted that conditions would remain favorable for development for the next five days, with light to moderate wind shear and SSTs near 29°C (84°F). Gonzalo should steadily intensify until reaching Puerto Rico on Monday. After that time, the models are unified in showing that the storm will get caught up in a trough of low pressure and turn to the north and then northeast, possibly passing close to Bermuda next Saturday or Sunday.

Tropical Storm Fay: Fay sideswiped Bermuda over the weekend with some impressive wind gusts for a tropical storm.

Tropical Storm Fay is accelerating to the northeast, out to sea, after battering Bermuda with winds close to hurricane force. Sustained winds at the Bermuda Airport reached 61 mph, with a gust to 82 mph, at 7:34 am local time Sunday morning. The airport recorded 1.85" of rain from the storm as of noon on Sunday. Fay will be absorbed by a cold front on Monday and die, without affecting any other land areas. The construction on Bermuda is the best of any island in the Atlantic to handle hurricane-force winds, and I expect damage on the island will be minor.

Fay is now heading east out to sea in the open Atlantic. here's the track on a weakening Fay from the National Hurricane Center.

Tropcial Cyclone Hudhud batters India

Hudhud may have a quirky name, but leaves no doubt as to the ferocity of the storm.

Tropical Cyclone Hudhud powered ashore near Visakhapatnam, India at 05 UTC (3 am EDT) Sunday as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 135 mph. Preliminary media reports indicate that damage was heavy in Visakhapatnam, a port city of 2 million, with thousands of homes damaged or destroyed and five people killed by falling trees and masonry. One-minute resolution wind observations from Visakhapatnam showed a peak sustained wind of 73 mph at 9:44 am local time, with a peak gust of 119 mph at 10:30 am. The station stopped reporting data at that time. Communications are out to much of the most severely affected regions, and I expect Hudhud's eventual toll will be similar to that of Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Phailin, which killed 45 people and did $700 million in damage in October 2013 to an area of India's coast just north of where Hudhud hit. Satellite loops show that Hudhud is pushing inland and weakening rapidly, with the storm's heavy thunderstorms steadily shrinking in areal coverage and intensity.

Hudhud was a massive and dangerous storm at landfall. It took out the radar as the eye wall moved ashore.

Vongfong floods Japan

In an active pacific Typhoon year, the strongest tropical cyclone so far in 2014 appears to be Vongfong. The storm dumped 20 inches of rain on Okinawa, and is drenching southern Japan.

Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Vongfong are drenching southern Japan as the once-mighty typhoon steams slowly north-northeastwards at 10 mph. Okinawa Island took a tremendous beating from Vongfong on Friday and Saturday, with sustained winds reaching 64 mph, with gusts as high as 89 mph. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) AMeDAS site at Kunigami on the northern end of Okinawa reported 20.83" (529.0 mm) of rain in 48 hours. Vongfong injured at least 31 people and knocked out power to much of the island. Satellite loops and Japanese radar show that Vongfong's eyewall has collapsed, and the storm continues to weaken due to high wind shear and cooling waters. Vongfong will likely dump 1 - 2 feet of rain over portions of Japan Sunday and Monday.