The National Hurricane Center’s 11: a.m. advisory puts Tropical Storm Humberto about 30 miles (45 kilometers) ENE of Abaco Island and 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Freeport, Grand Bahamas Island.
Humberto has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (83 kph) with higher gusts. The storm is ne3arly stationery, with a minimum central pressure of 1005 MB -29.68 inches. Humberto is forecast to become a hurricane by Sunday night well east of the east coast of Florida.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 kilometers) to the north and east of the center.
While Humberto appears to be stalled right now, the storm is expected to resume a slow-motion track toward the northwest and north later today. A sharp turn to the northeast is expected on Monday. The center of Humberto should gradually move away from the northwestern Bahamas later today or tonight, and then will move well offshore of the east coast of Florida this weekend and early next week.
This means that – right now, at least – Florida and the southeastern coast of the U.S. should be sparred when Humberto reaches becomes a hurricane.
Humberto is expected to drop an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain, with isolated totals of 6 inches on the Bahamas, while portions of the Florida and Georgia coasts could get up to one inch of rain.
Although Humberto is not expected to produce any great amount of storm surge, swells generated by Humberto are expected to increase and affect the coast from east-central Florida to South Carolina late this weekend and early next week. These swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
