Three separate storm systems are bearing down on the United States and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
The tropical threats include Hurricane Douglas in the Pacific Ocean, which is barreling toward Hawaii; Tropical Storm Hanna in the Gulf of Mexico, which will make landfall on the Texas coast on Saturday; and Tropical Storm Gonzalo in the Atlantic, which will have an impact on the Windward Islands.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Douglas<\/p>\n
Douglas weakened from a Category 4 to a Category 3 hurricane Friday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.<\/p>\n
That still makes it a major hurricane and it's projected to pass \"dangerously close to, or over\" the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday, federal forecasters said.<\/p>\n
It was expected to bring with it \"life-threatening surf\" starting Saturday, the center said.<\/p>\n
The storm was about 930 miles east-southeast of Honolulu, forecasters said. Douglas was moving west-northwest at 20 mph.<\/p>\n
While the islands were under a hurricane watch, Douglas was expected to weaken to \"near hurricane strength\" by the time it reaches the area of the archipelago, the hurricane center said.<\/p>\n
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Direct hurricane strikes are rare for Hawaii. While the island chain has a lot of close calls and gets brushed by several tropical cyclones a year, only two hurricanes have made direct landfall on the state. The most recent was Hurricane Iniki in 1992, which halted the production of the first Jurassic Park movie.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Hanna<\/p>\n
The National Hurricane Center said Friday night that Tropical Storm Hanna had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was 165 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas and moving west at 8 mph.<\/p>\n
A hurricane warning was in effect for Port Mansfield.<\/p>\n
A tropical storm warning covered the mouth of the Rio Grande to San Luis Pass, Texas, and a tropical storm watch from San Luis Pass to High Island.<\/p>\n
Of particular concern, Hanna is forecast to strengthen right up until it makes landfall on the southern Texas coast sometime Saturday. While the forecast has it making landfall as a strong tropical storm, there is an outside chance it reaches hurricane status before it does.<\/p>\n
Heavy rainfall 4-8 inches on average, but up to 12 inches in some areas could fall through Sunday night in southern Texas, causing flash flooding. Meanwhile, 3-5 inches of rain are expected along the upper Texas and the Louisiana coastlines. Tropical storm force gusts could reach the coast by Friday night or early Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
Hanna is the earliest \"H\" storm on record, following other record-setters from the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season such as Cristobal, Edouard, Fay and Gonzalo. The previous record was Harvey on Aug. 3, 2005.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Gonzalo<\/p>\n
As of Friday night, Tropical Storm Gonzalo had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was 285 miles east of Trinidad and moving west at 17 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.<\/p>\n
A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Tobago and Grenada.<\/p>\n
While Gonzalo has yet to reach hurricane strength, there is still a chance it could do so before reaching the southern Windward Islands this weekend. Either way, 2-5 inches of rain and up to 7 inches in some areas are possible for Barbados and the Windward Islands from Friday night through Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Beyond the weekend, the current forecast has Gonzalo weakening as it enters the Caribbean Sea and dissipating by the middle of next week.<\/p>\n
Simultaneous storm systems in the Atlantic during July are not all that common. It's only happened in 11 other years, according to Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University specializing in Atlantic basin season hurricane forecasts.<\/p>\n
And as if that isn't enough, the National Hurricane Center has circled another area to watch just off the western African coast. A vigorous tropical wave is expected to move westward across the tropical Atlantic over the next several days with gradual development possible. This will be one to watch next week.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Prociv is a meteorologist and producer for NBC News.<\/p>\n
Dennis Romero contributed.<\/p>\n
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Original post:<\/p>\n
3 storm systems bearing down on United States, the Caribbean - NBC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three separate storm systems are bearing down on the United States and the Caribbean. The tropical threats include Hurricane Douglas in the Pacific Ocean, which is barreling toward Hawaii; Tropical Storm Hanna in the Gulf of Mexico, which will make landfall on the Texas coast on Saturday; and Tropical Storm Gonzalo in the Atlantic, which will have an impact on the Windward Islands. Hurricane Douglas Douglas weakened from a Category 4 to a Category 3 hurricane Friday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center Continue reading