The Bret and Cindy Show’s end is in sight

Tropical Storm Bret is on its last legs, while Tropical Storm Cindy has a bit of life left before it runs into a hostile environment, which will gum up its works.

What’s left of Bret is some clumps of thunderstorms moving across the southern Caribbean Sea. The system has been sinking south a bit. The center passed offshore of the island of Aruba and will come close to the Colombian coast before it dies out.

The gustiest winds are on the north side of the system, away from land, so the effects on populated areas are not significant.

Once the circulation dissipates, likely later today or tomorrow, Bret’s moisture will spread across Central America and might eventually contribute to a Pacific disturbance.

About 1,250 miles to the east, Tropical Storm Cindy still has life. Thunderstorms have been blossoming near its center, and the estimated top winds have increased slightly. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting it to run into hostile upper winds late tonight or tomorrow. Significant weakening is expected after that.

Cindy is turning north well before reaching the Caribbean islands, so for now, there’s no threat to land. Late next week, some computer forecasts indicate the system could restrengthen and track in the general direction of Bermuda, but we’ll see. Small systems like Cindy usually don’t recover from an onslaught of strong upper winds.

This should end the early outbreak of systems developing in the Atlantic. An increase in dry air and Saharan dust over the tropical ocean is forecast, which is more typical for this time of year. That should help keep things under control, at least for now.