A man walks through one of the flooded streets in the Moscow neighborhood after the passage of Storm Fred, in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic.
Photo: Orlando Barría / EFE
MIAMI, Florida – Fred continues his advance on the north coast of Cuba this Friday, heading to Florida, where it will probably arrive this saturday turned back into a storm, reported the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The Florida Keys and southern parts of this southern US state are already under storm watch due to the proximity of the system, which maintains its maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour (55 km / h).
The NHC said Fred’s center is located about 60 miles (95 km) northeast of Camaguey, Cuba, and about 315 miles (5050 km) east of Key West, at the southern tip of Florida.
The system has recovered speed and is moving this Friday morning in a west-northwest direction at 10 mph (17 km / h).
The Florida Keys, from Ocean Reef to Dry Tortugas, and the southwestern coast of the peninsula, from south Bonita Beach to Ocean Reef, including Florida Bay, are under tropical storm warning and watch.
Tropical storm watch for several provinces in Cuba
A tropical storm watch continues in effect for the Cuban provinces of Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Holguin and Granma
Meteorologists at the Miami-based NHC forecast that the system will maintain current motion until Friday night, or Saturday, when it turns northwest.
On the forecast track, Fred is expected to move today “along or just north of eastern and central Cuba and near the Keys and southern Florida on Saturday.”
Forecasts predict “slow strengthening” of Fred
NHC meteorologists predict a “slow strengthening” of Fred, so it could regain its tropical storm strength in the course of this Friday and as it approaches the Florida Keys and the south of the peninsula.
“Heavy rains associated with Fred will impact parts of southeastern Florida this weekend, “with” risk of these meteorological conditions spreading to the north and the west coast and the Panhandle “on Sunday, they highlighted.
Fred, the sixth tropical storm this year, this weekend can produce heavy rains in the Florida Keys, in the south and center of this state, and then in the Big Bend of Florida, in the north of the state, in some cases up to 10 inches (250 millimeters), at risk of flash floods, river flooding and landslides.
In addition to the whipping of the wind, the area under Fred’s alert can suffer from swell, undertow and currents.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released its updated forecast for the current season, according to which above-average activity will be recorded in the Atlantic.
The update made by the NOAA Climate Prediction Center reflects that this year between 15 and 21 named storms can be registered, of which between 7 and 10 could reach the hurricane category, and of them 3 to 5 can being older, this is category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Nearing the equator of the current Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began on June 1, the count to date is six tropical storms: Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Elsa and Fred.
Only Elsa, formed in early July, became a hurricane.