Tropical Storm Ophelia meanders off Florida

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Ophelia sat off Florida’s
Atlantic Coast on Wednesday, barely budging and defying
forecasters’ attempts to predict where or if it might hit land.

Ophelia coalesced overnight from a loose and swirling mass
of thunderstorms and had top winds of 50 mph (80 kph).

At 5 p.m. (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time), Ophelia’s center was
about 80 miles

east-northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The storm was
nearly stationary all day long and was expected to meander
around the same spot for the next few days, forecasters at the
National Hurricane Center said.

Ophelia was expected to alternately weaken and strengthen
as it hugged the Florida coast, but could still grow into a
weak hurricane, with winds of at least 74 mph (118 kph).

Tropical storm warnings, alerting residents that the storm
could hit them within 24 hours, were posted for an 85-mile (135
km) stretch of shoreline from Cocoa Beach to Flagler Beach in
northeast Florida.

Forecasters said Ophelia could dump 3 to 8 inches (8 to 20
cm) of rain on parts of central and north Florida and southeast
Georgia, and trigger dangerous rip tides all along the
southeastern coast of the United States.

But the air currents that guide the path of tropical storms
were so weak that forecasting models disagreed greatly on
Ophelia’s most likely track.

One or two nudged it west across Florida and into the
northern Gulf of Mexico, the region stricken by catastrophic
Hurricane Katrina. Others had it looping slowly eastward and
away from the United States.

The individual models flip-flopped all day long, so the
hurricane center issued a compromise forecast: Ophelia is going
to stay put for a few days.

In the mid-Atlantic, Hurricane Nate strengthened as it
neared the British colony of Bermuda. It had top winds of 85
mph (140 kph) and was expected to pass just south of the island
of 65,000 people on Thursday.

Nate was centered 200 miles south-southwest of Bermuda and
was expected to pound the island with battering waves.

“I think we’re unlikely to sustain a lot of damage from
Hurricane Nate,” said Elizabeth Harris, a meteorologist with
the Bermuda Weather Service. “It’s just really going to brush
past.”

The island, a resort and banking center, rarely sees much
damage from storms of Nate’s caliber.

“We build all of our houses out of concrete blocks,” Harris
said.

Farther north in the Atlantic, Hurricane Maria was a danger
to ships but did not threaten land. It was about 875 miles

east-northeast of Bermuda and still had top winds of 80 mph
(130 kph). Maria was moving over colder water that was expected
to siphon its strength and break it apart on Thursday.

The tropical trio was not unusual for early September,
which is traditionally the peak of the Atlantic-Caribbean
hurricane season that runs from June 1 to November 30.