It was inevitable. After scarcely any rain for several months until Monday, hurricane season ramped up Wednesday when Tropical Depression 5 got its number. However, meteorologist Jose Alamo at the National Weather Service in San Juan doesn’t think it will pose much of a problem for the territory when it passes 170 miles south of St. Croix around 7 a.m. Saturday.
“Right now it looks like the worst will be mainly hazardous marine conditions, but you may see some rain and some outer bands,” Alamo said.
He said the computer models pretty much agree on the track but there is still some uncertainty as to strength. If it grows to a tropical storm, it will have the name Ernesto.
According to Alamo, a large high pressure area is keeping the storm south, which he said was pretty typical for storms at this time of year that start in the same general location.
As of the 5 p.m. update, Tropical Depression 5 had winds of 35 mph. It was located at 12.2 degrees north latitude and 49 degrees west longitude. This puts it about 810 miles east of the Windward Islands.
It was moving west northwest at 18 mph.
The barometric pressure stands at 1008 millibars or 29.77 inches.
Tropical storm watches were up for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, St. Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Hurricane season officially lasts until Nov. 30.
