Tropical Storm Ernesto is the fifth storm to form in the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season (Pictures: USA Today/NOAA)
The fifth storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Ernesto, is heading toward the Caribbean islands and possibly the US again.
Ernesto formed on Monday and moved toward Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, possibly bringing stormy conditions to them by Tuesday, according to some forecasts.
The storm is shaping up to possibly bring heavy rainfall and flash floods to where it may make landfall.
Most path prediction maps show the US mainland spared from Ernesto’s wrath.
Tropical Storm Ernesto is not expected to make landfall in the US mainland by most models (Picture: NOAA)
But one spaghetti model shows it targeting south Florida near Miami, just a week after Debby made landfall in the Sunshine State as a Category 1 hurricane before downgrading to tropical storm that drenched much of the state, neighboring Georgia and South Carolina, and even the northeast.
That model shared by NOAA shows most of the predicted paths for Ernesto passing through Puerto Rico then swinging northeast into the western Atlantic Ocean area. However, one strand shows it aiming to pass through the Dominican Republic and continuing to make landfall just west of Miami.
Ernesto was about 175 miles southeast of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, on Tuesday morning and was moving northwest at 18mph with winds up to 60mph. It is expected to turn north and move at a slower speed on Wednesday and Thursday.
Tropical Storm Ernesto formed on Monday (Picture: AP)
In the Atlantic, Ernesto is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane on Thursday, per the National Hurricane Center.
‘We must not let our guard down,’ said Ernesto Rodriguez, who director of the National Meteorological Service in San Juan.
Puerto Rico has activated the National Guard and canceled the start of public school classes.
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