Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center were watching closely on Friday for signs that a tropical system that was moving through the Caribbean would become organized enough to become Tropical Storm Imelda, the ninth named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
It is most likely to form in the vicinity of the central and northwest Bahamas over the weekend, forecasters said Friday morning. But the intensity of the storm and its eventual path — and how it interacts with Hurricane Humberto not far off in the Atlantic — are still unknown.
The system was already delivering heavy rains and gusty winds across the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands, conditions that were likely to spread across the Bahamas and eastern Cuba during the next day or two.
Regardless of whether the system becomes Imelda, forecasters warned that there was a “significant risk” of wind, rain and storm surge in the southeastern United States. Earlier this year, Tropical Storm Chantal formed in roughly the same area, and while it never became a hurricane, it brought significant flooding to parts of the Carolinas. And any named system is a quick reminder of the devastation Hurricane Helene brought to the region this time last year.
In Charleston, S.C., where the storm may come ashore, forecasters said they were hopeful their models will have a better picture by Saturday. The more data they can feed in, the better the models are, and so Hurricane Hunter planes will fly into the storm to send back critical readings on its progress. National Weather Service offices across the region are also launching extra weather balloons into the upper atmosphere to capture readings on temperature, humidity and wind to help forecasters better understand the developing conditions.
Judson Jones is a meteorologist and reporter for The Times who forecasts and covers extreme weather.
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