The tropics are very busy as the weekend begins. Tropical Depression # 3 has formed off the North Carolina coast while Hurricane Beryl holds its own as it zips towards the Lesser Antilles.We’ll start with Tropical Depression # 3, which formed on Friday afternoon. At 5 pm Friday, TD # 3 was located near 32.2 North, 73.8 West, about 230 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Maximum sustained winds were 30 miles per hour, but the system is expected to reach tropical storm strength on Saturday and eventually become a hurricane. The forecast shows TD # 3 lingering off the Carolina coast for several days, so we’ll keep an eye on it for possible impacts to the Outer Banks.
Now to Beryl. This little hurricane is holding its own, and a hurricane watch is in effect for Dominica. Tropical storm watches are in effect for Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemy in the Lesser Antilles. At 5 pm Friday, Beryl was located near 10.6 North, 47.8 West, and was moving west at 15 miles per hour. Maximum sustained winds were 80 miles per hour. Beryl is expected to move through the Lesser Antilles late on Sunday into Monday. The latest forecast track shows it moving south of Puerto Rico, clipping the southern coast of Hispaniola, and affecting eastern Cuba — as a tropical storm. But the small size of this system makes both the track and intensity forecasts quite uncertain beyond the weekend. We’ll continue to watch Beryl closely.
