MIAMI.- The National Hurricane Center (CNH), based in Miami, reports that tropical cyclone #1 of the hurricane season it crossed the Florida peninsula with sustained winds of 40 miles per hour (65 kilometers per hour) and exited the Atlantic Ocean, where it added a little more force and is now heading offshore in a northeasterly direction with winds of 45 mph (72km/h). h).
The small storm made landfall in Florida north of Naples, 95 miles northwest of Miami, without having strengthened its winds, and went out to sea around the town of Fort Pierce.
Its unorganized vortex sent most of the winds to the east and southeast, and dumped heavy rains on southern Florida, including the Miami metropolitan area.
According to the report, Miami accumulated 10 inches (254 millimeters) of rain between Friday and Saturday, causing flash flooding on some streets and clogging vehicular traffic.
At least one tree fell on a Pompano Beach home, though it did not injure the occupants.
Background
Hurricane Agatha entered the southern tip of Mexico from the Pacific Ocean with winds of 105 miles per hour, about 165 kilometers per hour, but in just a few hours it lost strength as it passed through the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental, and its remnants headed for toward the southern end of the Gulf of Mexico before entering Florida.
hurricane season
The cyclonic season began on June 1 and the National Authority for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (NOOA) predicts that it could be more active than normal, given the presence of the La Niña natural phenomenon, which tends to reduce the flow of shear winds, which much damage they do to cyclones.
The report raises the possibility of 14 to 21 storms with winds greater than 39 miles per hour, about 62 kilometers per hour.
Of those, six to 10 would be hurricanes and three to six could exceed 111 mph winds, about 178 kilometers per hour.
Let us remember that the forecast is subject to changes, depending on the development of the temperature and winds at sea and the lower layers of the atmosphere, and that the figures indicated do not apply only to a specific area, but to the entire Atlantic area, including Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
A “normal” hurricane season supposes the creation of 14 tropical storms and seven hurricanes, three of them major.
The last two seasons have also been more active than normal, with a record 30 storms in 2020 and 21 cyclonic events in 2021.