New storm threatens eastern Florida

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical storm warnings were posted for
Florida’s central Atlantic coast on Tuesday as a new cyclone
formed and threatened to hit the state as a weak hurricane by
the weekend.

The system was still an unnamed tropical depression, a
loose swirling mass of thunderstorms, but was growing better
organized and was expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm
Ophelia over the northwestern Bahamas by Wednesday.

It would acquire the name when its 30 mph (45 mph) winds
hit 39 mph (63 kph).

Forecasters said it looked unlikely to follow the path of
Hurricane Katrina, which swept across southeast Florida and
into the Gulf of Mexico, then burgeoned into a monster
hurricane that devastated New Orleans and the northern Gulf
region last week.

“It looks like it’s going to impact a little bit further
north than Katrina did,” said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist
at the National Hurricane Center.

The center’s extended forecast had it coming ashore in
north central or northeast Florida by Thursday and dissipating
over Georgia without getting anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for the northwest
Bahamas and for Florida’s east coast from Jupiter to
Titusville, a 130-mile stretch that included the Kennedy Space
Center.

At 11 a.m., the storm was centered abut 180 miles southeast
of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It was expected to turn north-northwest and strengthen into
a strong tropical storm or possibly a weak hurricane, with
winds of at least 74 mph (95 mph) , Pralgo said.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Nate strengthened
as it inched toward Bermuda. It had top winds of 60 mph (95
kph), was expected to become a hurricane and hit the British
colony of 65,000 people on Friday.

Nate was centered 275 miles south-southwest of Bermuda and
nearly stationary but was expected to loop to the northeast
over the island.

Farther north, Hurricane Maria was a concern to Atlantic
shipping interests but did not threaten land. It was about 545
miles east-northeast of Bermuda, where chillier waters were
already starting to sap its strength.

Its top winds dropped to 100 mph (160 kph) on Tuesday from
115 mph (185 kph) a day earlier.

The trio of storms was hardly unusual for this time of
year. Late August and early September are usually the busiest
part of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, which runs
from June 1 to November 30.