Warnings issued as Henri threatens high winds from Long Island to Nantucket

Henry was “almost a hurricane” on Friday night, according to the hurricane center, with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. The storm is expected to reach or approach hurricane strength when it hits land on Sunday.

Henri was moving north at nine miles an hour Friday night and is expected to accelerate in that direction until Sunday morning, the hurricane center said.

Late Friday night, Henry was 230 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Of the three storms that recently formed in the Atlantic Ocean, Henri, which developed off the east coast of the United States on Monday, formed the most recent. Earlier this week, most of the attention was focused on Tropical Depression Fred, which made landfall in the Florida panhandle on Monday afternoon as a tropical storm, and Hurricane Grace, which made landfall. land in Haiti as a tropical depression before making landfall like a hurricane over the Yucatán. Peninsula in Mexico Thursday. It made landfall on the east coast of mainland Mexico early Saturday.

Henri is expected to dump up to six inches of rain over New England on Sunday and Monday, with isolated totals of nearly 10 inches. Heavy rainfall in the region could cause flooding. Some coastal areas could experience storm surges of up to five feet.

The National Hurricane Center said Friday night that “heavy rains could lead to sudden, urban and small stream flooding” over parts of Long Island and New England on Sunday and Monday.

New York’s National Weather Service said that in Long Island and Connecticut, destructive winds, life-threatening storm surges and heavy precipitation were all likely.

In New York City and parts of New Jersey, there is a risk of wind of 30 to 40 miles per hour on Sunday, according to the Weather Service.

“The most likely arrival time for tropical storm force winds across the tri-state region is early Sunday morning,” the weather service said in a briefing Friday night. “However, the region could see tropical storm force winds as early as Saturday evening.”

When Hurricane Bob hit New England in 1991, it killed at least a dozen people, knocked down power lines and destroyed homes as neighborhoods flooded.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said on Friday that Cape Cod residents and vacationers should leave the area before the storm hits full force on Sunday. He said he was ready to deploy up to 1,000 National Guard troops to help with evacuations if needed.

While it is not uncommon for multiple weather systems to be active at the same time during hurricane season, forecasters from the National Hurricane Center said, it is somewhat unusual for there to be three at the same time that triggered tropical storm watches or warnings for land areas. .

“It’s a busy time here,” Michael Brennan, branch chief of the centre’s hurricane unit, said on Monday.

The links between hurricanes and climate change are becoming increasingly evident. A warming planet can expect stronger hurricanes over time and more of the more powerful storms, although the total number of storms may drop, as factors such as stronger wind shear could prevent the formation of weaker storms.

Hurricanes also get wetter because there is more water vapor in the warmer atmosphere; scientists have suggested that storms like Hurricane Harvey in 2017 produced much more rain than they would have had without the human effects on the climate. Rising sea levels also contribute to increased storm surges, the most destructive element of tropical cyclones.

A major United Nations climate report released this month warned that countries have delayed cutting fossil fuel emissions for so long that they can no longer prevent global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years. , resulting in more frequent and potentially fatal heat waves and severe droughts. Tropical cyclones have likely become more intense over the past 40 years, according to the report, a change that cannot be explained by natural variability alone.

Ana became the first named storm of the season on May 23, making it the seventh consecutive year that a named storm has developed in the Atlantic before the official start of the season on June 1.

In May, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted there would be 13 to 20 named storms this year, of which six to 10 would be hurricanes and three to five major Category 3 or more hurricanes in the Atlantic. In early August, in a mid-season forecast update, they continued to warn that this year’s hurricane season would be above average, suggesting a busy end to the season.

Matthew Rosencrans, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said an updated forecast suggested there would be 15 to 21 named storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes, by the end of the season on November 30. Henry is the eighth named storm. from 2021.

Last year there were 30 named storms, including six major hurricanes, forcing meteorologists to exhaust the alphabet for the second time and use the Greek letters.

It was the highest number of storms on record, surpassing 28 in 2005, and included the second highest number of hurricanes on record.

Derrick Bryson Taylor, Neil vigdor, Jesus jiménez, Jacey fortin and Eduardo Medina contributed reports.