Tropical Storm Laura sends gusts to Florida Keys. Tropical Storm Marco weakens further
Florida will feel Tropical Storm Laura the most — through gusty winds and a couple of inches of rain — on Tuesday as it passes south of Cuba.
Craig Key to Key West remains under a tropical storm warning, and the National Weather Service said the area could see tropical-storm-force winds during the rain bands that will continue most of Monday and into Tuesday. The weather service forecasts the area will see winds ranging between 25 to 35 mph and gusts going as high as 45 to 50 mph in squalls.
Mainland Florida still has a low chance of seeing tropical-storm-force winds (3% in Miami-Dade) compared to the 24% chance in Key West, according to the 2 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center. The weather service put coastal Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach under a wind advisory through 2 AM Tuesday.
Tropical Storm Laura weakened a bit, from 65 mph maximum winds to 60 mph, Monday morning as it crossed south of Cuba’s center point at 20 mph. By 5 p.m. it was 175 miles east of the western tip of Cuba.
Laura left behind a trail of destruction and at least 13 deaths in Hispaniola, where flash flooding submerged roads and threatened to burst the country’s main hydroelectric dam.
Jamaica, Cuba and the Cayman Islands are in for four to six inches of rain, with up to eight inches in some spots. That could cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.
Ahead lies the bathwater warm Gulf of Mexico and a chance to strengthen further. As of the 5 p.m. update, forecasters expected Laura to emerge off Cuba’s western coast early Tuesday morning and power up into a hurricane by Wednesday morning.
“The latest iterations of the global and regional hurricane models continue to show significant deepening while Laura traverses the Gulf of Mexico, and a period or rapid strengthening is possible once an inner core is able to organize,” they wrote.
It could hit the central Gulf Coast as a category 2 hurricane Wednesday night, a second brush with a storm for the region, which is due to see effects from Tropical Storm Marco Monday night.
As of the 5 p.m. update, Marco had 40 mph maximum winds but was expected to weaken to a tropical depression before making landfall on Louisiana’s eastern coast as a tropical depression on Monday night. There are no watches and warnings associated with Marco anymore.
Monday afternoon, it was about 15 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and had slowed to a crawl at 7 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend up to 80 miles out from the center of this small storm.
The hurricane center predicted that the combination of intense wind shear and interaction with land will dissolve the storm altogether by Tuesday.
Watches/warnings for Tropical Storms Laura and Marco
▪ Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for the Cuban provinces of Ciego De Avila, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Mayabeque, La Habana, Artemisa, Pinar del Rio, and the Isle of Youth. There is also a tropical storm warning in the Florida Keys from Craig Key to Key West and the Dry Tortugas
▪ Hurricane warning remains in effect for Morgan City, Louisiana to the mouth of the Pearl River.
▪ Hurricane Watch in effect for Port Bolivar, Texas to west of Morgan City, Louisiana.
▪ Tropical Storm Watch in effect from South of Port Bolivar to San Luis Pass, Texas as well as Morgan City, Louisiana to the mouth of the Mississippi River
▪ Storm Surge Watch in effect from San Luis Pass, Texas to Ocean Springs, Mississippi and for Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, and Lake Borgne
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 11:17 AM.
