Tropical disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean may develop into larger storms. On Tuesday night, Tropical Storm Fred developed south of Puerto Rico. Now, since its goal is that Florida is responding to a record COVID outbreak, it may intensify into a hurricane this weekend.
When entering the Gulf of Mexico or hitting Florida, the path cone of the storm is still wide, but the entire state of South Florida is in an uncertain cone. This is because the state is struggling to cope with an alarming number of new COVID cases and record hospitalizations.
The National Hurricane Center said that Fred will develop tropical storm conditions in parts of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Tuesday night, and will continue to develop in the Caribbean as it approaches the Dominican Republic and Cuba. -By the weekend.
The current projected path is for Fred to enter the Florida Keys northward, then westward into the bay, northward and upward into the west coast of Florida, or eastward into Miami and the east coast of Florida, and then hobble in the Atlantic Ocean.
The 11pm Eastern time update indicated that the maximum sustained wind speed of the tropical storm Fed near the eye wall is 40 mph, and the storm is moving westward at 17 mph. Warm waters and little land disturbance can help Fred achieve almost hurricane intensity, which happens when wind speeds reach 74 mph.
Photo by Spencer Pratt/Getty Images
This happened amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in Florida, which reached record levels almost every day last week.
The state health department reported 134,506 cases of the virus between July 30 and August 5, including 175 deaths. These include a new record of 23,903 cases reported on Friday, and 13,747 people have been hospitalized for the virus by Saturday (August 6).
The state government has been arguing with local lawmakers over whether to make masks mandatory.Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis Saying that masks are mandatory will emphasize the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“The federal government has no right to tell parents that in order for their children to go to school in person, they must be forced to wear masks all day, every day,” DeSantis said. “Many school children in Florida are affected by the mandatory mask-wearing policy. It is prudent to protect the parents’ ability to make decisions about their children’s wearing masks.”
At the same time, hurricane forecasters predict that during the second half of the hurricane season, the tropical storm season will be busier than usual. According to the calendar, the hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30. This means that the busy hurricane season may hit Florida, just as the coronavirus is starting to wreak havoc again.
Fred is the sixth named storm in the Atlantic season and the first since Elsa developed into a Category 1 hurricane in early July, then was downgraded to a tropical storm and hit the west coast of Florida. Elsa traveled all the way on the east coast of the United States last month, attacking the Del Marva region, eventually reaching New York City and New England, and then failing in Canada.
