Humberto Strengthens into 3rd Atlantic Hurricane of 2019, Heading to Bermuda

Tropical storm Humberto has now intensified into the third Atlantic hurricane of 2019 with top sustained winds of 75 mph, according to weather.com meteorologists in a report issued on Sept. 15.

The majority of the showers, thunderstorms and strongest winds associated with Humberto were skewed to the north and east of the storm’s center, which has largely spared the areas of the northern Bahamas that were hit by Hurricane Dorian, said Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist, in a report filed Sept. 15. (Dorian made landfall in the Bahamas on Sept. 1, where it stalled for more than a day as a Category 5 hurricane).

Humberto may pass close enough to Bermuda for significant impact, possibly strengthening to a Category 2 storm, said the weather.com report. Meanwhile, the storm continues to generate high surf and rip currents along the Southeast coast of the U.S., said NOAA’s National Hurricane Center.

“The current model consensus and the [National Hurricane Center] forecast is to take the hurricane just northwest of Bermuda around Thursday,” said a report authored by Weather Underground meteorologist Ben Henson, who noted that Bermuda is well within the NHC cone of uncertainty. “NHC predicts that Humberto will be a top-end Category 2 storm by Wednesday as it approaches Bermuda.” (Weather Underground and weather.com are units of IBM).

Other models “strongly suggest that Humberto could top out as a major hurricane (Category 3 or stronger) around Wednesday or Thursday,” he added in his report.

It’s too early to determine the severity of any impacts in Bermuda, but weather.com warned residents and visitors there to begin preparations.

Source: weather.com/Weather Underground/AccuWeather

Photograph: NOAA Satellite Image, Sept. 16, 2019