Madeline is expected to cross into the Central Pacific tonight and become a hurricane Sunday, before it weakens back into a tropical storm near Hawaii, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
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The tropical wave on everyone’s watch list has been hard to forecast because without an identified center, computer models used to forecast a path of a system don’t have a good place to start. Heavy rains are likely to continue over portions of eastern and central Cuba on Saturday.
The Weather Prediction Center’s 1-3 day precipitation outlook shows that areas in south Florida and the Keys could get 4 inches of rain or more – and the forecast rises to around 8 inches over five days.
Lester’s hurricane-force winds extend up to 25 miles (35 kilometers) from its center, and tropical-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 kilometers).
That was still the case on Saturday morning, and it had only a 40 percent chance of development over the next five days.
“While uncertainty on the case remains high at this time, there is the potential for tropical storm conditions impacting the islands”, forecasters said.
The most recent information from the National Hurricane Center suggests a low chance of tropical development in the next 48 hours and a medium chance in the next 5 days.
The storm now packs sustained winds of 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour, but could gain strength and become a hurricane by Monday.
A separate area of disturbed weather in the northern Gulf is not expected to develop further before reaching he coast of Texas over the weekend.
The center of Lester – which became a hurricane late Friday – was located some 595 miles (960 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, the NHC said in its 0900 GMT bulletin.
Gaston briefly achieved hurricane status of Thursday before weakening.
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Gaston was expected to continue moving to the northwest for the next day or two before turning to the northeast.
