31-07-20, 16:44
|
#153
|
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 47,648
Thanks: 27,646
Thanked 14,458 Times in 10,262 Posts
|
Re: HURRICANE/TS Season-Storm Isaias in D.R.-Heading For US
Tropical Storm Isaias Crossing Dominican Republic With South Florida Still in Cone
AP, 31 JUL 2020.
Tropical Storm Isaias is nearly done crossing the Dominican Republic, and the impacts South Florida and the Bahamas could see depend on what happens as the storm crosses the island’s high mountains.
Isaias is about 85 miles southeast of the northern tip of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Plata, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. update.
By Thursday afternoon, Isaias’ journey overland already started to take a toll. The storm contracted, with tropical-storm-force winds now stretching up to 310 miles out from the center as opposed to Thursday morning’s 415 miles. It maintained 60 mph winds and its speed of 20 mph.
The last few updates have shifted the track east, with the core of the storm passing between South Florida and the northern Bahamas on Saturday, but forecasters said it will be hard to know which way the storm will head until it has passed through Hispaniola.
Tropical Storm Isaias is in the Dominican Republic.
The center of Isaias is forecast to move diagonally across Hispaniola’s storm-shredding mountain range on Thursday, making landfall on the southeastern edge and emerging near the northern border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The storm is disorganized and still lacks a clearly defined center, which is what forecasters use to track the storm, so it’s hard to tell what shape it’ll be in when it enters open ocean again.
“There’s a great deal of uncertainty, and today’s not going to provide a whole lot more certainty,” said Joel Cline, tropical program coordinator at NOAA’s weather service headquarters. “We’ll know a lot more tomorrow.”
NHC forecasters predict Isaias may restrengthen Friday as it re-enters the ocean, but its exact track is still unclear.
“Anywhere from the outer banks to the Florida Keys needs to really pay attention to this today and tomorrow. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Cline said.
As of 11 a.m. Thursday, the National Hurricane Center was predicting that South Florida could see between 65 and 70-mph winds as the storm nears the coast of Florida this weekend, although it said predicting the intensity of the storm is “challenging.”
RELATED: 'You need to pay attention': virus-hit Texas readies for ...
|
|
|