The National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Grace formed in the eastern Caribbean Saturday morning, creating tropical storm warnings for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other parts of the Caribbean.
The storm is moving west at 23 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, the center said in a statement. advice He added that Grace is about 265 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands. The center said Grace was a minor storm but “moving fast” and “gaining strength”.
The center is located in the British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda, he said. Parts of the Dominican Republic were under tropical storm watch, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible within 48 hours.
The storm was expected to move over the Leeward Islands on Saturday night, before reaching the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Sunday, where the center said conditions were “expected to worsen”. The center said Grace is predicted to weaken on Sunday night.
The center said parts of the Virgin Islands, Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic could expect three to six inches of rain along with flooding. The storm was expected to rain on Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas next week.
The strength of the storm is 7.2 magnitude strong earthquake Saturday morning shook Haiti. The center said people on the island should follow Grace’s path and that tropical storm warnings “probably will be necessary” for Haiti and other nearby islands later on Saturday.
A video from Les Cayes, Haiti showed residents frightened by earthquake-triggered tsunami warnings as they escaped a wave of seawater flooding a street. The US Tsunami Warning Center reported tsunami threat for some shores
Grace is the seventh named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season after several days of flooding and power outages this week. fred, the sixth named storm of the season. The center said Fred fell into a tropical depression with a slow walk in the Caribbean and is expected to slowly gain strength on Saturday and turn into a tropical storm again as it approaches the Florida Keys.
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 in August, warned that nations were delaying curbing fossil fuel emissions so long that they would no longer be able to contain the intensification of global warming 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.
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. In a mid-season update to the forecasts in early August, they continued to warn that this year’s hurricane season will be above average, suggesting the season is coming to a heavy end.
Matthew Rosencrans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 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.
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.
Alyssa Lukpat contributing reporting.
