2023-06-20 06:16:35
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Bret formed Monday in the central Atlantic Ocean and forecasters say it might reach the Lesser Antilles as a hurricane Thursday, and the Dominican Republic and Haiti over the weekend.
The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Bret had maximum sustained winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) at 11:00 p.m. Monday and was moving west at 30 km/h. (18 mph). Forecasters expect it to gain strength over the next two days and reach a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 74 mph (120 km/h), by Wednesday night. It is not expected to reach category 2.
Bret is expected to strengthen and cross the Lesser Antilles as a hurricane on Thursday and Friday, bringing flooding, heavy rain and dangerous storm surge and waves, the NHC said. Afterwards, it is expected to weaken slowly, still in the eastern Caribbean, although the center cautioned that its forecast is not firm.
“All residents of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands should closely follow forecast updates on this system and have their hurricane plan ready,” the center said.
According to the NHC, there is a possibility that the storm might turn north or continue into the western Caribbean and threaten the Dominican Republic, Haiti and other islands.
“There remains greater than usual uncertainty,” the NHC said of the possible track of the storm.
It’s been nearly a century since the last time a storm strengthened into a hurricane in the tropical Atlantic in a June, according to Philip Klotzbach, a Colorado State University meteorologist. The last such storm on record was Trinidad in 1933, he tweeted.
Tropical Storm Arlene, the first of the 2023 season, formed earlier this month. It vanished following two days and never made landfall.
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