By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Weds. July 29, 2020: At least 21 countries in the Caribbean are being warned to look out for Tropical Cyclone Nine, which could become a storm today.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said heavy rains and gusty winds are over the Leeward Islands. Maximum sustained winds remain near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts expected. The system will move near or over Puerto Rico
tonight, near or over Hispaniola on Thursday, and near or over the southeastern Bahamas on Friday.
At 8 a.m. this morning, the disturbance center was 55 miles WSW of Dominica and about 350 miles southeast of Puerto Rico with a wind gust of 46 mph was recently reported on St. Kitts.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Vieques and Culebra Puerto Rico, The U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemy, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Dominica and the Dominican Republic, from Cabo Caucedo northward along the northern coast to the Dominican Republic/Haiti border and north coast of Haiti from Le Mole St Nicholas eastward to the northern border with the Dominican Republic.
A tropical storm watch is in effect for the Dominican Republic from the southern Haiti border eastward to Cabo Caucedo, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Southeastern Bahamas.
The potential tropical cyclone is expected to produce 3 to 6 inches of rain across the northern Leeward Islands, British and U.S. Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, with isolated maximum totals of 10 inches.
These rainfall amounts could lead to life threatening flash flooding and mudslides, as well as potential riverine flooding.
Some 1-3 inches of rainfall is also expected across the Windward Islands.
