Florence Becomes Season’s 6th Storm

The National Hurricane Center in Miami has designated Florence as the sixth named storm of the current season. According to the most recent (11:00 a.m. AST) bulletin, a tropical depression over the Central Atlantic Ocean gained sufficient strength – 40 mph/65 km/hr winds with higher gusts – to become a tropical storm.

Florence’s center was located near latitude 17.3 north/longitude 47.3 west or about 935 miles/1510 kms east of the Lesser Antilles. The storm is moving toward the west near 12 mph/19 km/hr, and “this general motion is expected to continue for the next 24 hours,” said the NHC.

Some slow strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles/185 kms from the center. Estimated minimum central pressure is 1005 mb/29.68 inches.

The NHC’s 5-day forecast shows Florence still out over the Atlantic, well north of the Caribbean and south of Bermuda by the weekend.