The forecasts foresee intense rainfall since Friday in Camagüey, Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo, with strong accumulated in some locations.
Madrid, Spain.- The Institute of Meteorology of Cuba (Insmet) issued this Thursday afternoon the Special Notice No. 1, Alerting about the increase of showers, rains and thunderstorms in the eastern provinces, from Camagüey to Guantanamo, due to the proximity of an active tropical wave.
The official part, published on the Facebook page of the forecast center, said that the tropical wave was located in the Eastern Caribbean Sea, close to the Spanish, with rainy areas and electric storms that at that time remained disorganized and affected the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The Insmet warned that to the extent that the system moved to the west-northwest, an extensive area of low pressures would be formed in the vicinity of the Bahamas in the next 12 to 24 hours. Although its cyclonic evolution was not yet defined, the proximity to Cuba and the existing atmospheric humidity would increase the probability of significant rainfall in the east of the country as of this Friday and during the weekend, some of them strong and intense in specific locations.
Subsequent updates
On Thursday night, in the time perspectives (9:00 pm), the INSMET expanded that the rains and thunderstorms associated with the tropical wave showed signs of organization, and did not rule out that a tropical depression was formed at the end of Friday, when the system moved to the southeast of the Bahamas.
In early hours of this Friday, in its forecast for the rest of the day, the meteorological organism said that the Cuban east would dawned clouded with isolated rains on the north coast and that, since the end of the morning, numerous showers, rains and thunderstorms throughout the eastern region would be produced, while in the rest of the country the rainfall would be more isolated.
Another system in the Atlantic
In parallel, the INSMET maintains under surveillance the evolution of the tropical storm Humberto, which slowly moves northwest in the tropical Atlantic with maximum sustained winds of 95 km/h. It is expected to become a hurricane, although specialists clarify that it does not represent a danger to Cuba.
In recent days, heavy rains have caused floods In several Cuban locations. In Camagüey, rainfall affected the Amalia Simoni hospital, while in Havana, flooding with garbage accumulation dragged through the streets were reported. These episodes reflect the vulnerability of the urban drainage system, deteriorated by the lack of maintenance and collapse of waste collection services.
The risk that the rains planned during this weekend aggravate the situation in low or poorly drained areas increases the concern of the population, which has experienced repeated flood effects.
