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New storm threatens eastern Florida

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 14:09 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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