Happy Nice Mall

A storm system south of Puerto Rico transformed into Tropical Storm Fred Tuesday night, the sixth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.

In an update before 11 p.m., the National Hurricane Center warned that Tropical Storm Fred is expected to produce heavy rains in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola on Wednesday, which could lead to flash flooding. The center of the hurricane said Fred was producing winds of up to 40 mph and moving west at 17 mph.

The hurricane center is expected to be near the southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands by Thursday. The storm was expected to move over Cuba and head northwest to the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, according to a forecast by the hurricane center.

The hurricane center said the storm could pose a threat of wind and precipitation to Florida through Friday, but forecast details are still unclear.

The links between hurricanes and climate change are becoming more apparent. A warming planet can expect to see stronger hurricanes and a higher incidence of the strongest storms over time – but the overall storm count may decrease because factors such as stronger wind shear can prevent weaker storms from forming.

Hurricanes also get wetter due to more water vapor in the warmer atmosphere; scientists have suggested storms like Hurricane Harvey in 2017 produced far more rain than it would have had without human effects on the climate.. Also, rising sea levels are contributing to higher storm surge, the most destructive element of tropical cyclones.

A big United Nations climate report The report, released on Monday, warned that nations are delaying curbing fossil fuel emissions so long that they won’t be able to prevent global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, leading to more frequent life-threatening heatwaves and severe droughts. Tropical cyclones have likely become more intense over the past 40 years, a change that cannot be explained by natural variability alone, according to the report.

Ana became the first named storm of the season on May 23, marking the seventh year that a named storm has developed across the Atlantic before the official start of the season on June 1.

The last named storm in the Atlantic was Hurricane Elsa in early July. Elsa cut through Cuba and then Florida and eventually made its way to New York City, where heavy rains came. storm flooded subway stations and roads.

In May, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 13 to 20 named storms This year, there will be six to 10 hurricanes and three to five major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher in the Atlantic. Last week, in a mid-season update to the forecasts, they continued to warn that this year’s hurricane season will be above average, suggesting that the season is coming to a heavy end.

NOAA’s Matthew Rosencrans said an updated forecast suggests there will be between 15 and 21 named storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes, by the end of the season on November 30. Fred is the sixth named storm of 2021.

had last year 30 named stormsIncluding six major hurricanes, it forced meteorologists a second time to exhaust the alphabet and switch to Greek letters.

This was the highest number of storms on record, exceeding 28 in 2005, and included the second highest number of hurricanes on record.

Jesus Jiménez contributed to the reporting.