ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center had a crowded spate of systems to keep track of Tuesday with a disturbance that could impact South Florida later this week, along with a hurricane, tropical storm and depression all swirling throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
First, the NHC is monitoring a system with odds of becoming the next tropical depression or tropical storm, a weak frontal system associated with an area of showers and thunderstorms hanging over Cuba.
The disturbance is forecast to continue moving toward central and western Cuba, and then move back toward Florida Thursday through Saturday, the NHC said in its 2 p.m. update. The system has a 10% chance of developing in the next five days, but could produce locally heavy rainfall in the Florida Keys and South Florida on Thursday and Friday.
If the system develops, it will receive the Greek letter Gamma as its designation.
Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Beta, which was downgraded into a tropical depression Tuesday morning, further weakened with sustained winds of 30 mph by the evening.
Beta made landfall over Texas as a tropical storm late Monday night the southern end of Matagorda Peninsula.
Beta sluggishly moved Tuesday through the Texas coast at 5 mph bringing heavy rainfall with the threat of flash flooding. It is expected to travel northeast through Louisiana by Thursday. The storm is 40 miles north of Port O’Connor, Texas, and 35 miles north-northwest of Matagorda, Texas.
When Beta moved inland, that made it nine named storms to make landfall in the United States — the 2020 total ties the record with 1916 season for most landfalls in the country at this point of the year, said Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.
Heavy rain is expected to affect a large area of the Texas and Louisiana coast, with about 5 to 10 inches forecast as Beta slowly makes its way northwest. When Beta moves further inland it is forecast to affect a large area of Arkansas bringing 2 to 4 inches of rain.
The storm is also bringing life-threatening storm surge, up to 2 to 4 feet, throughout the Texas and Louisiana coastline over the next couple of days.
Beta is expected to slowly weaken as it speeds up into the northeast United States through the week and should dissipate by the weekend.
Next, Hurricane Teddy continues to fluctuate in strength as it fell to Category 1 status Tuesday evening after briefly garnering Cat 2 strength Tuesday morning. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Teddy’s maximum sustained winds weakened slightly to 90 mph, and the storm is moving its way through the northern Atlantic at 16 mph.
Teddy is a “ginormous” hurricane with hurricane-force winds reaching 125 miles from its center, and its tropical-storm-force winds stretch even further to an impressive 540 miles.
Forecasters expect Teddy to bring heavy rain, strong winds and destructive waves to Nova Scotia by early Wednesday. The storm was 245 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, as of the 5 p.m. update. While Teddy is expected to weaken into a post-tropical cyclone by the time it reaches Nova Scotia, it’s still expected to be a powerful and dangerous storm.
The most dangerous aspect of the hurricane will be large swells and rip currents, which could reach Bermuda, the Leeward Islands, the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, the east coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada during the next few days
Teddy is expected to be extratropical or post tropical by Thursday.
In the far east Atlantic, what had once been a strong Hurricane Paulette that made a direct hit on Bermuda before moving into colder waters and becoming a post-tropical cyclone is back. Tropical Storm Paulette reformed as it migrated back south into warmer waters, with the NHC issuing advisories again late Monday, two weeks after the system originally formed.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Paulette was located about 390 miles east-southeast of the Azores islands with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph moving east at 12 mph.
“An eastward to east-northeastward motion is forecast through Wednesday,” forecasters said. “A decrease in the forward motion along with turns to the southeast then south are expected Wednesday night through Thursday.”
The hurricane season officially runs from June 1-Nov. 30, but 2020 saw two storms form before June 1, and still has more than 10 weeks to go.
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