Skip to footer

Heads up, Florida: Tropical storm Erika is on its way, could become hurricane

Erika’s maximum sustained winds increased Wednesday morning to near 45 mph. While experts remain uncertain about its intensity, more 'slow strengthening' is expected over the next two days.

|
NASA/Reuters
Tropical storm Erika in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Venezuela in this NASA handout satellite photo from Tuesday. Erika has triggered a tropical storm Watch for Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, Saba, and St. Eustatius and is expected to approach the Leeward Islands late on Wednesday.

By the time tropical storm Erika hits south Florida early Monday morning, it will have become a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The Weather Channel reports that the storm is fast moving westward at 17 mph, and will reach Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands by Thursday. Rain may not be wholly unwelcome in these areas, as historic droughts have especially affected the islands this year.

The National Hurricane Center on Wednesday morning raised its watch over the islands of St. Martin and St. Barthélemy to a warning, meaning that the storm could hit anytime within the next 36 hours. 

Tropical storm warnings have also been issued for the United States and the Leeward Islands, a set of territories lying east of Puerto Rico over which Erika will be centered Wednesday night.

Erika’s maximum sustained winds increased Wednesday morning to near 45 mph. While experts remain uncertain about its intensity, more “slow strengthening” is expected over the next two days. 

At last report, the storm was centered about 335 miles east of Antigua. 

Meanwhile in the Pacific, tropical storm Ignacio has gained some strength, with its maximum sustained winds increasing to nearly 60 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Ignacio is moving west at 9 mph and is also expected to strengthen to a hurricane by Thursday, though currently no coastal watches or warnings are hoisted.

The storm is centered about 1,500 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and will turn toward the west-northwest region on Thursday. 

This report contains material from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Heads up, Florida: Tropical storm Erika is on its way, could become hurricane
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/0826/Heads-up-Florida-Tropical-storm-Erika-is-on-its-way-could-become-hurricane
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe