Senior Met Officer Provides Update on Tropical Storm Lee
Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 6, 2023 (ZIZ Newsroom): As the Federation prepares for the effects of Tropical Storm Lee over the weekend, Senior Met Officer at the St. Kitts Met Services, Elmo Burke provided an update on the state of the storm.
During an interview with ZIZ News, Burke said the storm was about 1200 miles east southeast of the federation and is expected to strengthen as it approaches the Caribbean.
“It’s expected to develop into a hurricane later this evening because currently it has sustained winds of about 70 miles per hour, and for it to become a hurricane, it has to be 74 miles per hour. So, once it attains that, it would be designated as a hurricane. Nonetheless, as it continues to progress across the Atlantic, closer to us, it is expected to rapidly intensify into a major hurricane with winds in excess of 130 miles per hour.”
He added that the federation might experience some of the effects of the feeder bands associated with the storm as it moves closer to the country.
“So once the current trajectory holds and it continues in this West Northwesterly direction, as I said, the center is likely to pass north of us here in, St. Kitts and Nevis. However, some of the feeder bands from the system may impact us. When we say the feeder bans, we’re talking about the bans of the storm and recognizing that it’ll be a major hurricane, we could see some shower activity as the system pass. The seas are likely to deteriorate as we progress into the weekend. So marinas are asked to exercise caution and listen out to the weather bulletin that we will be issuing over the next few days. So additional information in terms of the expected weather conditions will be forthcoming in the forecast this evening, as well as throughout the rest of the days into this weekend.”
Burke said persons could start to see these effects by Friday and they would gradually subside going into next week.
“In terms of the shower activity, we are going to have an increase in cloudiness, most likely from Friday thereabout as the feeder bands start to push into the area and continuing into Saturday and as the system pulls away from us here in the northern leeward, you’re going to see a gradual improvement in terms of the weather, in terms of the rainfall and so forth. However, there will be a lag effect in relation to the seas. So, the seas are going to take a while to respond, so that’s why we are looking at some time Saturday thereabout for you to see a gradual deterioration in the seas. And as the system moves further away from us here in St. Kitts and Nevis as we move into the earlier part of next week, seas are likely to subside.”
He said as the Met Office continues to monitor the system persons do not need to use their disaster plan at this time, however, persons are to remain vigilant and continue to monitor the updates on the storm.