Image from https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which struck in 2017, while Tropical Storm Dorian, the fourth named storm this hurricane season, approaches.

As of about 1 p.m. East Coast Time on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, the tropical storm was 25 miles southeast of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. Its winds were strengthening to 70-mph.

The storm is expected to hit Puerto Rico later today, making landfall at Vieques and Culebra and the Virgin Islands. It is then predicted to strike east of San Juan.

The storm is very hard to track. People in Puerto Rico were at first feeling some relief that they might be spared earlier on Wednesday, but the path of the storm changed and started heading directly for the island.

The storm is expected to reach hurricane strength before reaching land.

Unlike Maria, Dorian is expected to bring more water than wind to Puerto Rico, noted the director of the National Weather Service office in San Juan.

The storm continues to be difficult to track. However, it appears that it could hit the Atlantic coast of Florida during the weekend. The director of the National Hurricane Center said that a large swath of the southeast of the U.S. including South Caroline down to South Florida could be affected.

Hurricane experts predict that once Dorian passes Puerto Rico, it could gain enough strength to be designated a Category 3 hurricane as it travels across warm waters near the Bahamas. However, it is expected to weaken to a Category 2 hurricane as it approaches the mainland of the U.S.

Floridians have been warned to expect landfall at about 8 a.m. on Monday, September 2^nd. Floridians were also warned that they could experience flooding and strong winds before then.

On Tuesday, August 27^th, President Donald Trump approved a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to issue an emergency declaration that authorizing a federal coordinated relief effort.

While the hurricane season in the Atlantic begins on June 1^st and runs to November 30^th, the most active time of the season is from mid-August through mid-October. That’s because surface air temperatures peak near the end of summer, ocean waters remain warm well into autumn and more moisture is in the atmosphere. All of this supplies the elements for a hurricane.

A late advisory from the National Hurricane Center alerted the central region of Florida. Parts of the Sunshine state could get 4-inches to 8-inches of rain. Up to 10-inches has been predicted for isolated areas of Florida later this week and on into early next week.

According to the National Hurricane Center, all models indicate that Dorian will become a hurricane on Friday, August 30^th and will continue to strengthen thereafter.

The National Hurricane Center released updates at about 12 p.m. East Coast Time that the storm’s track will take it off the coast of Titusville, Florida by 8 a.m. Monday, September 2^nd. But the center also warned that due to the cone of uncertainty, the storm could be anywhere from coastal Georgia to the southern tip of Florida or west of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico at that time.

Meanwhile, according to an update issued at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Tropical Storm Erin was weakening to a tropical depression after increasing its travel speed overnight. This storm continued to move north-northwest at 6-mph with maximum sustained winds lowing to 40-mph. It is currently off the Maryland coast where it is expected to cause strong rip currents. The National Weather Service has issued a beach hazards statement as well as a small craft advisory that is in effect through Wednesday evening.

The beach hazards statement is for beaches in Maryland, Virginia, and the Outer Banks. The small craft advisory means that winds of 18 to 33 knots are imminent or occurring.

Tropical storm-force winds are predicted off the Maryland coast throughout Wednesday. Erin is then expected to travel north and reach the coast of Massachusetts by Thursday. 

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