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(FOX Weather)
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET Monday, Oct. 21, 2024
Former Hurricane Oscar made landfall on eastern Cuba’s north coast late yesterday as a well-developed Category 1 hurricane. Last Friday, our computer forecast models completely missed this event. The miniature hurricane spun up exceptionally rapidly and tracked over the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas before dipping south toward eastern Cuba.
Oscar made a slow trek across the island and is now stalled just northwest of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on the southern coast. The high terrain has taken a toll on the circulation, so the system is now at low-end tropical storm status.
Former Hurricane Oscar made landfall on eastern Cuba’s north coast late yesterday as a well-developed Category 1 hurricane.
(NOAA)
The biggest threat is the heavy rain falling over eastern Cuba, especially in the Sierra Maestra mountains west of Santiago de Cuba. The National Hurricane Center predicts up to 14 inches of rainfall, with some spots receiving 20 inches. Cubans are suffering through nationwide power outages, so no doubt, the situation there is difficult.
The atmospheric pattern will change later today and tomorrow. A dip in the jet stream will scoop Oscar north, and hostile upper-level winds will attack the storm from the west. The circulation will likely dissipate or be absorbed into a non-tropical system in the next two days.
As the system lifts to the north, it will pass over the southeastern or central Bahamas, so alerts are up there for tropical-storm-force winds. No significant impacts are expected, however.
Once Oscar is off the board about Wednesday, no tropical development is expected for at least the next week, maybe longer. Strong upper-level winds will protect the Gulf and Florida into November. But conditions generally conducive to tropical development will continue over parts of the Caribbean, so we’ll watch for that.