By David E. Hubler
Contributor, EDM Digest
Even as first responders and recovery units on Grand Bahama and Abaco islands continue to search for bodies and deal with the massive cleanup from Hurricane Dorian, weather forecasters are warning of another possible storm heading toward the Bahamas.
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According to CNN, 50 persons are known dead and 2,500 others are listed as missing. About 70,000 people “have lost almost everything” since Dorian struck the two northern Bahamian islands on September 1.
Dorian Was the Strongest Hurricane to Ever Make Landfall in the Bahamas
The Category 5 storm with torrential rain and winds as high as 183 mph was “the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the Bahamas,” CNN added.
Now, more heavy rains could be headed to the northern Bahamas within days.
“There’s a 70% probability that a tropical depression or a tropical storm could form by Saturday from the area of low pressure now near the Turks and Caicos,” the National Hurricane Center predicted Thursday morning. The storm system is on a northwest path at five to 10 mph heading toward the Bahamas and the Florida peninsula.
Conditions Becoming More Favorable for Tropical Depression or Tropical Storm
“Satellite images indicate that the area of disturbed weather over the central and southeastern Bahamas is gradually becoming better organized,” the NHC in Miami reported. “Conditions are becoming favorable for a tropical depression or a tropical storm to form within the next day or so as the system moves toward the northwest.”
If this development trend continues, the NHC added, “Potential Tropical Cyclone advisories will likely be initiated “perhaps as early as later today….This disturbance will bring heavy rainfall and gusty winds across portions of the Bahamas through Friday, especially in portions of the northwestern Bahamas affected by Hurricane Dorian.”
The storm would be named Humberto if it reaches tropical storm strength.
Tropical Wave off Cabo Verde Islands Creating Additional Storms
The NHC also called attention to a “tropical wave” several hundred miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands off Africa’s west coast, which is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms. “Conditions appear conducive for development, and a tropical depression could form early next week while the system moves westward over the tropical Atlantic,” the weather center said.
Mid-September is usually the mid-point of the annual hurricane season in the Caribbean and often produces the strongest storms of the year. This year is proving to be no exception.
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