Maria was pretty disorganised yesterday morning with little or no banding evident and satellite estimates indicate that this was a 50 mph tropical storm. Maria is racing to the west at a forward speed of 23 mph and this westward track is expected to continue for the next couple of days. It looks likely that Maria will track across the northern Leeward Islands on Saturday and acrosst the Virgin Islands on Saturday night. After that, the spread in the track forecast widens as Maria should track towards a weakness in the ridge of high pressure over the western Atlantic. If the storm has not dissipated by Sunday, people are urged to be vigilant in watching the weather advisories as the storm is expected to strengthen by Monday or Tuesday.

Rob Lightbown wrote, “The exact track of Maria is obviously not certain and there is the possibility that Maria could make it far enough west to threaten eastern North Carolina around the middle part of next week.”

Invest 96L has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Nate. It is gradually becoming better organised and we should see a strengthening storm right through this weekend. As of yesterday morning, Nate had 45 mph maximum winds and the storm remained nearly stationary. The main problem with the system is that forecasters seem to be unable to predict what this system will bring. The most that any of them seem to be able to say is that the storm will strengthen to at least a Category 3 hurricane and head toward the Gulf Coast. With that in mind, we in Cayman needn’t worry about Nate yet. However, if you have any friends or relatives that live or vacation along the Gulf Coast, I would suggest you let them know to keep an eye on the advisories regarding Nate.

Go to Crown Weather Services at www.crownweather.com and the National Hurricane Centre at www.nhn.noaa.gov/ for more information on these systems. We wish to thank Crown Weather for their permission to use their graphics and information. Please support them.