While Harvey has left a system of heavy rains stalled over Texas, experts at the National Hurricane Center are keeping an eye on another possible tropical storm, this time along the U.S. eastern seaboard.
“It’s trying to organize itself into a storm or a depression,” said Lixion Avila, a meteorologist at the center in Miami, Florida.
As of late Monday morning, the center offered a 90 percent chance that Tropical Storm Irma could form by sometime Wednesday, passing near the coastline before going out to sea over the Atlantic.
Avila said reconnaissance aircraft were monitoring the situation Monday.
Heavy rain and gusty winds are forecast for coastal areas along the eastern U.S.
Though Harvey has lost strength since making landfall as a hurricane along Texas’ Gulf Coast late Friday, it remains a potent threat.
The tropical storm has drenched the state with more than 60 centimeters of rain in some places, and more could fall through Wednesday.
“I want to make it clear that a tropical storm can produce as much rain as a hurricane,” Ávila said. “Historically, many tropical pressure systems have been worse than hurricanes.”
…