MARSH HARBOUR, BAHAMAS. (THECOUNT) — Forecasters say a forming storm has a 70% chance of striking the islands in the northern Bahamas where teams are still searching for thousands of people gone missing in recent superstorm, Hurricane Dorian. This as the height of hurricane season arrives.
Heavy rain could drench the beleaguered area “within days” with the system moving on to possibly impact coastal areas from Florida down to the Texas Panhandle.
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It’s “not the best news for an area that’s already been hardest hit by Hurricane Dorian, with heavy rain and very strong winds,” CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said early Thursday, referring to the Category 5 monster that less than two weeks ago slammed the archipelago nation.
The brewing storm system also may move across the Gulf of Mexico, Van Dam said, possibly impacting coastal areas from the Florida Panhandle to Texas.
Atlantic hurricane season is about to reach its “statistical peak” in the weeks surrounding September 10, a period when weather conditions favor potentially powerful storms forming quickly.
There’s a 70% probability that a tropical depression or a tropical storm could form by Saturday from the area of low pressure now near the Turks and Caicos, the National Hurricane Center predicted Thursday morning. It would be named Humberto if it reaches tropical-storm strength.
Nearly 4 inches of rain could fall in the next five days in Marsh Harbour, a town in the Bahamian Abacos Islands where Dorian destroyed about 1,100 buildings, some forecast models show. In Nassau, a hub of the nation’s hurricane recovery, 1.5 inches of rain could fall by early next week, current models show.
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: The Bahamas is a coral-based archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. Its 700-plus islands and cays range from uninhabited to packed with resorts. The northernmost, Grand Bahama, and Paradise Island, home to many large-scale hotels, are among the best known. Scuba diving and snorkeling sites include the massive Andros Barrier Reef, Thunderball Grotto (used in James Bond films) and the black-coral gardens off Bimini – wikipedia.