Miami.- Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are on alert due to the Tropical Storm Rafael formed this Monday in the Atlantic, from a tropical depression, and is expected to intensify into a hurricane later this week.
According to the 21:00 GMT bulletin from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), the storm is located about 280 kilometers south of Kingston, capital of Jamaica, a country in the Caribbean that is Tropical storm conditions could begin to occur the same night, and 635 kilometers southeast of Grand Cayman.
The system carries sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour, but it is expected to increase its power and become a hurricane on Tuesday, that is, one day before it crosses western Cuba.
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The cyclone even merited a hurricane warning for the Caribbean Cayman Islands, where it is forecast to impact on Tuesday, and a tropical storm watch for a part of the Florida Keys, in the extreme south of this US state.
The meteorological center, based in Miami (Florida), indicated that the system is moving north at 15 kilometers per hour and that today it could turn toward the northwest, and on the predicted path it will pass near Jamaica tonight.
Rafael will cause a storm surge of up to 0.9 meters above usual sea level in parts of the Cayman Islands and up to about 2.5 meters in areas of Pinar del Río, in Cuba, according to the NHC, which also warns of the strong winds and rain that the storm will bring and that could cause flooding in parts of Jamaica and Cuba.
On the other hand, Tropical Storm Patty, which formed on Saturday morning in the eastern end of the Atlantic basin and did not pose threats to coastal areas, dissipated this Monday, when it was 945 kilometers from the Azores islands, according to the NHC.
According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began on June 1 and ends on November 30, will have “above” average activity, with between 8 and 13 hurricanes, of which between 4 and 7 would be of major category.
Since this year’s season began, ten hurricanes have formed: Beryl, Debby, Ernesto, Francine, Helene, Isaac, Kirk, Lesley, Milton and Oscar, of which Beryl and Milton reached category 5, the maximum on the scale. Saffir-Simpson intensity.
