Tropical Storm Fiona Is Bringing High Winds and Flood Threats to the Caribbean

Tropical Storm Fiona has strengthened within the Atlantic Ocean and is slated to convey rain and powerful winds to a number of Caribbean islands this weekend.

As of Friday morning, the utmost sustained winds from Fiona are about 50 miles per hour with some stronger gusts, based on an alert from the National Hurricane Center. The storm is predicted to strengthen barely throughout the subsequent few days however has not but grown right into a class 1 hurricane. “Rainfall impacts continue to be the greatest threat related to Fiona,” the San Juan NWS account tweeted this morning.

Several islands are at the moment below tropical storm watches, as situations might change throughout the subsequent day or two, The New York Times reported. The British and U.S. Virgin islands are anticipated to obtain 4 to six inches of rain. Puerto Rico is predicted to obtain 4 to eight inches of rain, with a most of 12 inches of rain, based on the National Hurricane Center alert.

Fiona shaped earlier this week and is certainly one of a number of storms to have proven up after the primary August in 25 years and not using a named storm. It was additionally the third August since information started within the Nineteen Forties with no named storms within the Atlantic. The quiet month was a reduction, on condition that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season earlier this yr.

But September appears to be making up for misplaced time. Hurricane Earl shaped earlier this month, bringing heavy rain to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in addition to sustained winds of as much as 90 miles per hour final week. On the opposite coast, Tropical Storm Kay introduced heavy rain to California, triggering landslides in areas beforehand scarred by wildfires.