The tropical system we have been monitoring in the Atlantic has been designated Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine on Tuesday, with tropical storm warnings now posted for much of the eastern Caribbean.
Forecast track for Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine.
Here we go again.
Fresh off the first landfalling hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season, another tropical storm is likely to form this week in the central Atlantic Ocean. This storm, currently located over the central Atlantic, has been designated as a Potential Tropical Cyclone by the National Hurricane Center.
A Potential Tropical Cyclone means, in part, that the National Hurricane Center believes the storm has a high probability of turning into a tropical cyclone, and forecast cones, tropical alerts and more can be issued before a tropical cyclone officialy develops.
The next storm on the Atlantic Hurricane list is Isaias. It would become the ninth-named storm of an already hyper-active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season to date.
If Isaias does indeed develop, it’d become the earliest I-named storm on record. The current record earliest ninth-named storm of the season is Irene, which formed back on August 7th, 2005.
If you’re wondering how exactly Isaias is pronounced, here’s a detailed guide on how to properly say it (along with all the other 2020 Atlantic storms.
As of Tuesday, the tropical wave was located about 500 miles east of the Windward Islands.
The spaghetti models, a suite of computer forecast models overlayed on a map, show the storm is likely to gradually turn north as it moves westward across the Atlantic.
Spaghetti models show a general west-northwest track before potentially approaching the Southeastern U.S.
The system’s first impacts to land could be tonight in the Leeward Islands, where heavy rain is expected. Life threatening flash floods and mudslides are possible.
Tropical storm warnings are in place for much of the Caribbean including the islands of Dominica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. and U.K. Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, St. Maarten, Anguilla and St. Kitts and Nevis, and the Dominican Republic.
Heavy rainfall and gusty wind conditions will spread to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, Wednesday night into Thursday.
Most computer forecast models show the storm slowly strengthening into a tropical storm this week although the long-term track is still highly uncertain.
