Oscar intensified into a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday afternoon just hours after it had formed as the 15th named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, and the second in less than a day. It had grown a bit stronger and was expected to bring heavy rain to the Caribbean islands this weekend, including Cuba, which has been facing a nationwide electricity crisis.

Here’s what you need to know:

Turks and Caicos, which were nearing tropical storm conditions on Saturday afternoon, are expecting hurricane conditions by nightfall as the storm continued to move west toward Cuba and the Bahamas. Local governments have issued hurricane warnings for Turks and Caicos and the southeast Bahamas.

Oscar is expected to bring heavy rains to eastern Cuba by Sunday, prompting its government to place some eastern provinces under a hurricane watch. Cuba has been gripped by a nationwide power crisis for weeks, which left the entire island in darkness on Friday and caused a second power outage on Saturday.

Forecasters had predicted a hyperactive hurricane season this year, but an extended lull kept things quiet for much of the first half. With Oscar, there have now been 10 storms since Sept. 9 — seven of them hurricanes. Some, like Kirk and Leslie, remained far out at sea, but three, Francine, Helene and Milton, made landfall in the United States.

At 5 p.m., Oscar’s center was about 165 miles southeast of the southeastern Bahamas, forecasters said. It was not expected to gain much more strength, before weakening on Sunday night and into Monday.

Tropical storm conditions were quickly approaching land, with hurricane conditions expected tonight in Turks and Caicos. Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches was forecast for Turks and Caicos, with some higher amounts. In addition, a storm surge of 2 to 4 feet could bring wide-scale coastal flooding.

Hurricane Oscar, which the National Hurricane Center calls “tiny,” is packing a bigger punch on Saturday evening, the meteorologists said in their advisory at 5 p.m. Eastern.

The Category 1 hurricane had maximum sustained winds recorded at 85 miles per hour, with higher gusts.

An Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter plane investigating Oscar found that it had very quickly intensified into a Category 1 hurricane, just hours after it formed as a tropical storm. Its maximum sustained wind speeds have jumped from 40 miles per hour about five hours ago to 80 m.p.h. now.

Tropical Storm Oscar is a “very small” tropical cyclone, forecasters said, and it could fluctuate quickly in intensity, either up or down, over the next day as it moves to the west.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the islands of the southeast Bahamas and all the Turks and Caicos Islands, according to the Bahamas Department of Meteorology. This includes the islands of Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Acklins, Long Cay, Ragged Island, and Inagua.

With the jump to hurricane status, the governments in the region have increased their alert levels as well. Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas are now under a hurricane warning, and three eastern provinces of Cuba — Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas — are under a hurricane watch. Hurricane conditions are expected in the eastern edge of the warning areas by Saturday night and will continue as the storm moves west.

In the Bahamas, the government has issued a tropical storm warning for the Turks and Caicos islands and the southeastern Bahamas, and dangerous winds are expected to arrive by Saturday night. Cuba has placed three eastern provinces — Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas — under a tropical storm warning, and a fourth, Camagüey, is under a tropical storm watch.

Source: The New York Times 

BDST: 1335 HRS, OCT 20, 2024
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