• 3 weeks ago
After causing significant impacts in Cuba, Rafael is inching its way through the Gulf of Mexico before it's expected to turn south toward Mexico and lose its status as a named storm.
Transcript
00:00So here's the latest set up on that the latest position here. So we still have Hurricane Raphael
00:04overall moving a little bit to the west, moving relatively slow, but still maintaining
00:09as that Category 2 hurricane. However, as we look forward, this is going to be a very
00:14slow moving storm over the weekend. It will maintain as a Category 2 storm,
00:19but then the wind intensity will come down as we head throughout the weekend.
00:22And every single one of these icons you see right there, these are all spaced by 24 hours.
00:28So you can see between Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, not a whole lot of ground is going
00:33to be covered here by Raphael. However, after that, starting on Tuesday, it is going to
00:38accelerate to the south. And as it accelerates to the south, it will lose some wind intensity.
00:43So by the time it makes landfall there in Mexico, it will be a tropical rainstorm here. But overall,
00:49we're still going to see some strong winds, some elevated surf, some rip current conditions.
00:54And yes, even some flooding rainfall there as it makes its way towards parts of the Yucatan
00:58down and towards other parts of Mexico. So we will be watching this very carefully.
01:03As far as the overall impacts here as we head throughout now and next Thursday,
01:07this is going to be a very long impending storm. We will see rough surf and rip currents possible.
01:12And we're also going to see some heavy downpours of rain. But most of the impacts will be
01:16over water. They'll be offshore, which is great. But by the time it makes its way onshore,
01:21makes landfall next Thursday, the intensity will come down. But we could still see some
01:27brief heavy downpours of rain and possibly some coastal flooding for some areas. But overall,
01:32most of the impacts have already been felt here, especially across western parts of Cuba,
01:36where some areas have seen over a foot of total rainfall from Raphael. But as it continues this
01:41westerly track and then takes that hard left turn to the south, we could still see some one to two,
01:46three to four inch rainfall totals there on parts of Mexico as it makes its way
01:51onshore. So we will be watching this very carefully here as we head throughout this weekend
01:55and as we head into early parts of next week. For expert insights and superior accuracy,
02:00don't forget to download the free AccuWeather app or follow AccuWeather.com on all of our
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