On June 15, a vigorous tropical wave moved over the eastern tropical Atlantic from mainland Africa. It was the first tropical wave of the 2023 season to show signs of development upon entering the basin, and marked a rather early start to the Cabo Verde hurricane season. The system moved quickly westward and steadily organized. By the 18th, there was rotation evident in the satellite signature; the next day, Tropical Depression Three formed.
Shortly afterward, the depression strenghtened into Tropical Storm Bret. Ocean temperatures and atmospheric humidity both favored further intensification, but its fast motion and some mid-level westerly shear made it more difficult for it to build a central core. Nonetheless, the storm's maximum winds increased steadily on June 20. Bret reached its peak intensity of 70 mph winds and a central pressure of 996 mb very early on June 22. It was near hurricane strength, but was rather lopsided and didn't have much spiral banding on satellite.
Later that morning, increasing wind shear caught up with the cyclone as the center of circulation began to outrun the convection to the west. The storm began to weaken but passed among the Leeward Islands that night still as a strong tropical storm, bringing strong winds to the islands. Bret picked up more speed toward the west as it traversed the eastern Caribbean on June 23. Even after the center had moved a few hundred miles to the west, the storm generated heavy rains over the Leeward Islands from all the moisture that the wind shear had displaced eastward.
Bret's center steadily degraded over the following day and it weakened. The storm took a fast southern route through the Caribbean and passed barely north of the Venezuelan coastline during the morning of June 24. Later that day, the circulation opened up and Bret dissipated north of Colombia. Some of the storm's remnants ultimately contributed to the formation of Hurricane Beatriz in the Eastern Pacific a few days later.
The image above shows Bret near peak intensity in the open tropical Atlantic. Though Bret neared hurricane strength, it never acquired the typical central dense overcast typical of a storm of that caliber.
As with many tropical storms with similar track before it, Bret ultimately succumbed to the hurricane graveyard of the eastern Caribbean.
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