Forecasters Track Additional Storms

The forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami aren’t getting a great deal of rest these days, as the 2011 hurricane season heats up.

After days spent tracking Hurricane Irene, the NHC is currently following tropical storm José, which is currently located north-northwest of Bermuda.

Although it’s expected to “bring squalls to the island tonight” with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph, 65 km/h…with higher gusts, José is weakening, and isn’t expected to pose any further threat to land.

The NHC forecast that it would “become a post-tropical remnant low pressure system by Tuesday morning.”

However, a “low pressure system located about 375 miles south of the southern Cape Verde Islands,” designated Tropical Depression 12, may become a greater threat in the next few days.

The NHC forecasts that there’s a “high chance – near 100 percent – of it becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours as it moves westward or west-northwestward at around 15 mph.”

Maximum sustained winds are around 35 mph, 56 km/h. TD 12 is moving almost due west at around 15 mph, 24 km/h. The NHC said a “turn toward the west-northwest is expected during the next couple of days with little change in forward speed.”

Hopefully that course would take TD 12 into the middle of the Atlantic, where it could threaten Bermuda, but would spare the U.S. mainland.

Source: National Hurricane Center

Topics Windstorm Hurricane