More Weekend Storms Adding To Record Hurricane Season

Tropical storm Sally, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles an hour, crossed the southern tip of Florida Saturday and was expected to deposit up to 6 inches of rain over the Florida Keys before strengthening over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, heading toward southeast Louisiana.

As of Saturday afternoon, Tropical Storm Paulette, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, was moving northwest toward Bermuda which was under a hurricane warning; the storm could bring a prolonged period of strong winds, strong surge and heavy rain to the island beginning late Sunday, and could create large swells along the U.S. East Coast early in the week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Behind Paulette, in the central Atlantic Ocean, is Tropical Depression Rene and two more “disturbances.”

Separately, Disturbance 1 in the north-central Gulf was producing “disorganized showers and a few thunderstorms” Saturday, the hurricane center said, but the risk of it developing into a more dangerous cyclone in the next five days was seen as low, at 30%.

Parts of the Gulf Coast region still are digging out from Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in southwest Louisiana on Aug. 27 with 150 mph maximum sustained winds, making it a Category 4 hurricane and the strongest storm in terms of wind speed to hit Louisiana since at least 1856; it claimed at least 28 lives in Louisiana alone and caused more than $8 billion damage total, according to RecentNaturalDisasters.com.