The National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm warnings for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where forecasters are expecting Potential Tropical Cyclone 6 to strengthen Tuesday into the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
In its 8:00 a.m. update, the NHC said the disturbance, moving to the west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph) was located about 270 miles east-southeast of Ponce, Puerto Rico, packing maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kmh) with higher gusts.
The disturbance is expected to pass near or over the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico late Tuesday and Tuesday night and be near or over Hispaniola on Wednesday.
Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are likely over the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, which could lead to flash, urban and small stream flooding and potential mudslides.
The greatest threat for flooding impacts will be across the eastern and southeastern portions of Puerto Rico, where isolated amounts of rainfall of up to 6 inches are possible.
Most of Florida remains in the system’s five-day forecast cone, but it’s too soon to tell whether any impact could occur there by late this week or this weekend given the uncertainty in the long-range forecast, according to the NHC.
“The system is being guided along to the west-northwest by the circulation around a large area of high pressure over the central Atlantic,” AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski said.
