Hurricane Debby
07:22 AM EDT - 22 August 2000

11AM Udpate:

The Bahamas has put up Hurricane Warnings for the Acklins, Crooked, Inaguas, Ragged, Turks, Caicos, and Mayanguana Islands. (Most of the SE Bahamas)

Debby is still a minimal hurricane, but shows signs of strengthening now. The track will take it oh so close offshore north of Puerto Rico. The thinking for the remainder of the future track remains unchanged from the original Update.

Original Update:

Right now Hurricane Debby is over the northeastern Caribbean islands. Very near St. Maarten now and still moving West Northwest. God bless those in the islands, weather the storm well.

Hurricane Watches are now up for the extreme Southeast Bahamas.

What of the future? It's still a little questionable, and note it go either way from here, but my thinking puts it continuing West northwest and passing Hispaniola just to the north (but close) and offshor a bit to the Northeast coast of Cuba late Thursday and approaching South Florida on Friday. Caveats here include, not turning north and going into the Gulf, and turning north affecting Central Florida or further up the SE coast. The most likely includes an approach to South Florida and possibly turning up the state once within. Models however are leaning toward the south. So the Gulf scenario has a decent chance too. However, past the point of "near Florida" it becomes speculation to the Nth order.

How strong will it be? This depends a lot on how much, if at all, it goes through the larger islands (like PR and Hispaniola). If it does, it will be weaker, if it does not it will most likely slow down Tomorrow or Thursday and be allowed to strengthen. I have no idea what type of system Debby will be when it approaches Florida. It has the potential to be a major, but I'm not totally convinced of that yet.

Debby will affect Florida in some way somewhere during Friday and this weekend. Know this, and plan for this. I realize that is a broad statement, but it's impossible to say any more with confidence yet. And listen to local Emergency Management, Media, and other official sources. You can help us out by letting us know what you hear via local media or anything by leaving a comment here to help seperate information from misinformation. (A lot of it happens when an impending storm approaches)

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