© 2024 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WUSF is part of the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, which provides up-to-the minute weather and news reports during severe weather events on radio, online and on social media for 13 Florida Public Media stations. It’s available on WUSF 89.7 FM, online at WUSFNews.org and through the free Florida Storms app, which provides geotargeted live forecasts, information about evacuation routes and shelters, and live local radio streams.

Sam Will Kick Up Florida's Surf While Well Offshore As A New Depression Forms

Swells from Hurricane Sam will gradually reach the Atlantic coastline from the Carolinas to Florida on Thursday and Friday, then peak on Saturday.

Hurricane Sam is not expected to reach the U.S. coast, but beachgoers will feel the effects in the form of swell starting in a day or two.

Hurricane Sam is near its closest approach to the Caribbean; it's about 450 miles east of the Leeward Islands. It's expected to miss those islands and turn northward on Friday and then northeast a couple hundred miles to the east of Bermuda on Saturday. Swells from Sam will gradually reach the Atlantic coastline from the Carolinas to Florida Thursday and Friday, then peak on Saturday. The swell will continue on Sunday, but gradually diminish early next week.

Heavy showers and thunderstorms are located off the coast of Africa that are tied to a natural phenomenon called the monsoon trough. The trough forms where northeasterly trades and southeasterly trades meet up near or south of the Cape Verde Islands.

Forecasters have been monitoring two disturbances within the monsoon trough: "Invest 90L" and "Invest 91L".

Invest 90L formed into Tropical Depression 20 on Wednesday morning about 535 miles south of the Cape Verde Islands. The development of 91L, which is a few hundred miles west of 90L, is a lot less likely than it appeared on Tuesday.

Both systems are currently forecast to turn northward and not get on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Global models are forecasting a substantial increase in moisture from the central Caribbean northward to near the Carolina coast next week. There are no indications of a tropical system forming at this time, but this area is climatologically favored for development in October and will have to be monitored for possible changes.

Copyright 2021 Storm Center. To see more, visit FloridaStorms.org.

Ray Hawthorne
You Count on Us, We Count on You: Donate to WUSF to support free, accessible journalism for yourself and the community.