Tropical Storm Karen set to make dizzying turn, perhaps eyeing Bahamas, southeast U.S.
Source: Washington Post
Tropical Storm Karen set to make dizzying turn, perhaps eyeing Bahamas, southeast U.S.
The system is expected to make a full clockwise loop before meandering west and gradually strengthening.
By Matthew Cappucci
September 25 at 10:33 AM
A day after lashing Puerto Rico with flooding rains and winds gusting over 40 miles per hour, Karen is continuing its trek northward. Still a tropical storm, Karen is expected to maintain strength or slowly strengthen, eventually stalling and possibly making a turn west. That makes Karen one to watch for residents in the Bahamas and southeast United States, where Karen’s long-anticipated tour of the west central Atlantic might bring it uncomfortably close.
Karen is a capricious storm. Less than 36 hours after being classified as a tropical storm Sunday morning, Karen weakened into a tropical depression, sparking doubts that the system would ever make it to Puerto Rico intact. Barely a day later, Karen intensified into a tropical storm once again as it drew near the island territory. The main impacts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands weren’t from wind, however; the headaches stemmed from rain.
Just southwest of San Juan, 3.46 inches of rain fell, with 3.50 inches in Utuado along the island’s western half. A number of flash flood warnings were issued in the island’s mountainous terrain. Doppler radar indicates as much as half a foot fell in Juana Diaz and Villalba municipalities. It’s estimated that more than 14 inches fell just offshore.
Karen is sitting about 150 miles north-northeast of San Juan, with maximum central winds of 45 mph. Over the next day or two, the system will casually strut northward or slightly north-northeastward, as if heading out to sea. But then the storm slams on the brakes and throws it in park. Karen could stall over the open Atlantic for 12 to 24 hours from late Thursday into the latter half of Friday.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/25/tropical-storm-karen-set-make-dizzying-turn-perhaps-eyeing-bahamas-southeast/
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