NU Online News Service, Aug. 18, 1:45 p.m. EDT
After weeks of a very quiet Atlantic hurricane season, tropical storm activity erupted swiftly, with three named storms popping up over the weekend--one that could potentially become a major storm.
The first hurricane of the 2009 season, which began June 1, is Hurricane Bill, a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 100 mph as of this morning, the National Hurricane Center said today.
The current forecast calls for Bill to strengthen into a major storm, classified as a Category 3 storm or higher, with winds exceeding 111 mph. The storm track over the next five days shows the storm skirting the United States East Coast, but it could impact Bermuda sometime Saturday into Sunday.
Risk Management Solutions issued a statement saying that all forecast models agree Hurricane Bill will likely veer away from the U.S. and remain over open waters for the next five days.
Most models "suggest that Bill will remain to the west of Bermuda; however, there is a chance that Bermuda will be impacted in four to five days time if the track shifts any further east," RMS said.
Bill is expected to reach peak intensity within the next 72 hours, RMS said. The storm is currently located 705 miles east of the Leeward Islands. As the storm moves north, after 72 hours it is "likely to encounter cooler waters" and lose strength.
The first named storm of the year, Tropical Storm Ana, started as a tropical depression on Tuesday of last week but did not become a named storm until Saturday. The storm dissipated as it approached Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands.
The third named storm, Tropical Storm Claudette, sprang up quickly on Sunday and moved over the Florida panhandle Monday morning, with winds topping 50 mph.
AIR Worldwide noted that Claudette made landfall in less than 12 hours after forming in the Gulf and weakened as it moved into Alabama. There were no reports of extensive damage.
Ana and Claudette dropped heavy rains, but neither posed significant threats.
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