Tropical Storm Watch Remains in Effect For Several Caribbean Islands

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – A tropical storm watch remains in effect for several Caribbean islands on Monday as Tropical Cyclone Five continues to strengthen and meteorological officials says additional watches or warnings could be required later this morning.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that tropical storm watches are in effect for the French island of Guadeloupe, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, and Anguilla as well as Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, Sint Maarten, the British and United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

It said interests in elsewhere in the northeastern Caribbean should monitor the progress of the weather system, which was centered near latitude 14.4 North, longitude 52.5 West.

“The system is moving toward the west near 25 miles per hour (mph) and this motion is expected to continue with some decrease in forward speed during the next couple of days.

“On the forecast track, the disturbance is expected to move across portions of the Leeward Islands on Tuesday and approach the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Tuesday evening,” the NHC added.

It said the maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gust and that some strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days.

‘The disturbance is expected to become a tropical depression later today or tonight and become a tropical storm as it nears the Leeward Islands,” the NHC said, warning the system is expected to produce total rain accumulations of four to six inches over portions of the Leeward Islands.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean, Potential Tropical Cyclone Five is expected to produce the following rain accumulations through Friday morning.

In July, Hurricane Beryl left a trail of death and destruction when it made its way through the Caribbean chain.