Possible Hurricane Could Hit the Caribbean by Thursday

It’s still early in Hurricane Season (typically June through November), but there’s a possibility for two more named storms to hit the Caribbean this week.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Monday issued advisories for two possible storms that could impact travel in and around the Caribbean as early as Thursday.

The first is a tropical depression (called ‘Tropic Depression Three for the moment) that is currently traveling west on the Atlantic Ocean towards the Antilles. At the moment, the storm is bringing maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (55 km/h) with higher gusts.

The expectation, according to the NHC, is that the storm will pick up strength and possibly morph into a hurricane as it continues to move westward.  

“The depression is forecast to strengthen and move across the Lesser Antilles as a hurricane on Thursday and Friday, bringing a risk of flooding from heavy rainfall, hurricane-force winds, and dangerous storm surge and waves,” the NHC’s latest advisory reads.

If it does pick up intensity and reach hurricane status, it will be named Bret, the next name on the NHC board. The NHC is still warning that there is a “larger than usual uncertainty in the track forecast,” so its exact path is still up in the air.

Still, it is advising that “everyone in the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands should closely monitor updates to the forecast for this system and have their hurricane plan in place.”

Some forecasters are predicting that the storm will make landfall in the Caribbean, including impacting Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, while others are expecting that it could miss the region entirely.

Behind Tropic Depression 3 is a second storm system that the NHC is advising is “close to becoming a tropical cyclone.” That storm, currently producing showers and thunderstorms, is 750 miles behind Tropical Depression 3 and much less likely to reach land. However, just like the other storm, there’s a lot of uncertainty, including some thought that the storms could possibly join depending on the path and speed each are traveling at. 

“Further development of this system is possible, and a tropical depression could form within the next few days while the system moves westward at 10 to 15 mph across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic,”

No airline has issued any waivers for the storms, but that could change very quickly considering the path of both storms.