Tropical Storm Isaias has formed in the eastern Caribbean, becoming the fifth Atlantic named storm formation this month and the ninth of the season.
As of 10:00 BST on Thursday, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) had issued a tropical storm warning for Puerto Rico, the US and British Virgin Islands, Vieques and Culebra, along with parts of the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The NHC had initially issued a tropical storm warning for the islands of St Martin, St Barthelemy, St Maarten, Saba and St Eustatius, but those were no longer in effect, the latest notice said.
Cuba and Florida should monitor the storm, it added.
Isaias has already brought heavy rain and strong winds to Puerto Rico and its current trajectory suggests the storm centre will hit Hispaniola later today and reach the south-eastern Bahamas by early Friday, the NHC explained.
At the time of the update, the storm was roughly 100 miles from Ponce, Puerto Rico and 160 miles from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and was moving at about 21 mph.
Isaias’ maximum sustained winds are approaching 60 mph, with higher gusts, and it is expected to maintain its strength until landfall in Dominican Republic later today, before re-strengthening on Friday and Saturday.
“Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 415 miles from the centre. A Weatherflow station in Yabucoa Tanque de Agua reported sustained winds of 52 mph with a gust to 59 mph,” the NHC said in its most recent advisory for the tropical storm.
Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at the Colorado State University, noted on Twitter that Isaias has set a new record for the earliest ninth Atlantic named storm formation.