Tropical Storm Ida Forms in the Caribbean

• Aug. 26, 2021Updated 6:29 p.m. ET

Tropical Storm Ida, the ninth named tempest of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, formed successful the Caribbean Sea connected Thursday day and could scope Louisiana implicit the play arsenic a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said.

As of 5:20 p.m., the tempest was 100 miles west-southwest of Negril, Jamaica, the halfway said. It was moving northwest astatine 14 miles per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 40 m.p.h.

Jamaica could person six to 10 inches of rain, with isolated totals of up to 15 inches, portion the Cayman Islands and parts of Cuba could person 8 to 12 inches of rain, with isolated totals of up 20 inches, the halfway said.

Grace formed successful the eastbound Caribbean connected Aug. 14, the aforesaid time a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti’s occidental peninsula. The tempest quickly moved west arsenic the state struggled to escaped radical trapped successful rubble, dumping astatine slightest 10 inches of rain. Grace past made different landfall connected the Yucatán Peninsula, bringing much dense rain, powerfulness failures and hundreds of evacuations. Another landfall, connected the eastbound seashore of Mexico’s mainland, left astatine slightest 8 radical dead.

And Henri formed connected Aug. 16 arsenic a tropical tempest disconnected the East Coast of the United States. It strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane but was downgraded earlier making landfall successful Rhode Island, sparing the portion the worst of what had been predicted. It thrashed the Northeast with fierce winds and torrential rain, knocking retired powerfulness to much than 140,000 households from New Jersey to Maine. Some communities successful Connecticut were evacuated and rainfall records successful New York City were shattered.

The links betwixt hurricanes and clime alteration are becoming much apparent. A warming satellite tin expect to spot stronger hurricanes implicit time, and a higher incidence of the astir almighty storms — though the wide fig of storms could drop, due to the fact that factors similar stronger upwind shear could support weaker storms from forming.

Hurricanes are besides becoming wetter due to the fact that of much h2o vapor successful the warmer atmosphere; scientists person suggested storms similar Hurricane Harvey successful 2017 produced acold much rainfall than they would person without the quality effects connected climate. Also, rising oversea levels are contributing to higher tempest surge — the astir destructive constituent of tropical cyclones.

A large United Nations clime report released successful August warned that nations person delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for truthful agelong that they tin nary longer halt planetary warming from intensifying implicit the adjacent 30 years, starring to much predominant life-threatening vigor waves and terrible droughts. Tropical cyclones person apt go much aggravated implicit the past 40 years, the study said, a displacement that cannot beryllium explained by earthy variability alone.

Ana became the archetypal named tempest of the play connected May 23, making this the seventh twelvemonth successful a enactment that a named tempest developed successful the Atlantic earlier the authoritative commencement of the play connected June 1.

In May, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast that determination would beryllium 13 to 20 named storms this year, six to 10 of which would beryllium hurricanes, and 3 to 5 large hurricanes of Category 3 oregon higher successful the Atlantic. In aboriginal August, successful a midseason update to the forecast, they continued to pass that this year’s hurricane play volition beryllium an supra mean one, suggesting a engaged extremity to the season.

Matthew Rosencrans, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that an updated forecast suggested that determination would beryllium 15 to 21 named storms, including 7 to 10 hurricanes, by the extremity of the play connected Nov. 30. Ida is the ninth named tempest of 2021.

Last year, determination were 30 named storms, including six large hurricanes, forcing meteorologists to exhaust the alphabet for the 2nd clip and determination to utilizing Greek letters.

It was the highest fig of storms connected record, surpassing the 28 from 2005, and included the second-highest fig of hurricanes connected record.

Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.