Bridgetown – Hurricane Teddy was jogging towards Bermuda on Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (mph) as the British Overseas territory braced for the passage of a second storm within a week.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said that Teddy was “jogging” to the west-northwest and that its swells could generate rip currents along western Atlantic beaches for several days.
The NHC said that Hurricane Teddy was 320 miles south, south east of Bermuda and that a Tropical Storm Warning has gone into effect for the island.
In its latest bulletin at 8 a.m., the NHC said that the centre of Hurricane Teddy was located near latitude 28.0 North, longitude 62.7 West.
“Teddy is moving towards the west-northwest near 12 mph and a northwestward motion will likely resume by this afternoon. A turn towards the north is expected tonight and then Teddy is forecast to continue generally northward for another couple days.
“On the forecast track, Teddy will approach Bermuda tonight, and the centre should pass east of the island Monday morning,” the NHC added.
It said that the maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 105 mph with higher gusts and that little change in strength is expected today.
“Teddy is expected to remain a large and powerful hurricane through Monday, then become a strong post-tropical cyclone on Tuesday,” it said, adding that “Teddy is a large hurricane. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles”.
The NHC warned that large swells generated by Teddy are affecting the Lesser Antilles, the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States, and Atlantic Canada.
“These swells are likely to cause life- threatening surf and rip current conditions,” it added.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Wilfred is wilting in the face of hostile environmental conditions, the NHC said.
It said that the storm is about 1 285 miles east of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.
“Wilfred is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph. A turn towards the west with a slight decrease in forward speed is expected by tonight,” the NHC said, adding that the storm is not expected to last more than another couple of days and could dissipate as soon as later today. (CMC)
