Tropical Storm Franklin douses Bahamas, heads away

MIAMI (Reuters) – The sixth tropical storm of one of the
busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record brushed the
Bahamas on Friday before moving away from the island chain on a
track forecasters said would likely keep it away from the U.S.
coast.

Rains from Tropical Storm Franklin doused parts of the
Bahamas during the day, but the Bahamian government dropped all
storm warnings with only 1-2 inches (2.5 -5 cm) more possible
in the northernmost islands on Friday night.

At 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Friday, Franklin’s center was about
100 miles north-northeast of Great Abaco Island and moving to
the north at 9 mph (15 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center
in Miami said.

The storm’s sustained winds were about 50 mph (80 kph),
forecasters said.

The Department of Meteorology of the Bahamas said light to
moderate rains fell over the Abaco area but Franklin had not
brought strong winds.

“We’re not getting a whole lot of weather from the system,”
a department spokeswoman said.

Some forecast models had predicted Franklin could loop back
around in a circle and aim for the central Florida coast,
potentially affecting NASA’s plans for a Tuesday launch of the
first space shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

But the storm’s most likely track was to the north and then
the northeast, taking it away from the United States and far
out into the Atlantic Ocean in the general direction of
Bermuda, forecasters said.

Franklin’s formation on Thursday marked the earliest in the
season since records began in 1851 that six tropical storms
have formed in the Atlantic. The hurricane season runs from
June 1 to the end of November.

Hurricane experts have predicted an unusually busy season
this year. Two hurricanes, Dennis and Emily, have already
pounded the Caribbean, Mexico and the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Last year saw 15 tropical storms, of which nine became
hurricanes. Florida was struck by four of the hurricanes in a
six-week period.

Most U.S. hurricane experts do not attribute the high
number of storms to global warming. But climatologists say
warmer sea-surface temperatures and greater amounts of water
vapor in the atmosphere could lead to more intense hurricanes
in the future.