Tropical Storm Bret has moved a couple of hundred miles to the west in the last couple of days and looks to continue in that direction.
The storm is now very close to the island nation of Barbados and will strike it in the next couple of hours.
The storm, according to National Weather Service Meteorologists, will continue toward the coast of Nicaragua after that at a speed of roughly 14 miles per hour. it can cover roughly 340 miles of water at that pace and could be in the area of the Nicarauguan coastline in about five days’ time.
The storm has a maximum recorded sustained wind of 65 miles per hour, putting it in the upper echelon of a tropical storm.
It’s waaaaaaay too early for anyone around here to freak out about tropical storm Bret. It just is. The storm is about the same distance from Niceville as Vancouver, Canada as of 8 PM on June 21st.
But it does make sense to keep tabs on Bret and the tropical wave coming in behind it.
The storm, which is entirely unrelated to the marginal risk for extreme weather the area of northwest Florida might experience in the next week, currently sits in between the ‘elephant’s ear’ of western Africa and the Windward Islands that serve as the gate to the Caribbean Sea.
The storm produces sustained winds with a high speed of 40 miles an hour. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, expect the storm to be in between Hispaniola (the island with Haïti and the Dominican Republic) and South America by Sunday, June 25th.
While it’s too early to freak out about the storm in our area – it’s never enough to ensure you prepare for the storm season in Northwest Florida and Niceville. Check out Okaloosa County’s Hurricane Preparedness Guide for a list of what you will need – whether or not you choose to evacuate for a storm.
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