Tropical storm Bret, a sluggish but well-formed weather system, spun to life off Florida’s east coast Sunday night, but it posed no threat to South Florida.
The storm, the second of the 2011 season, is unlikely to generate any real relief from drought conditions in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
Bret formed just north of the northwest Bahamas, bringing heavy downpours to the islands and whipping up high surf conditions with its winds of up to 40 mph. As the slow-moving storm is expected to slog north and toward the northeast Monday afternoon, it is projected to drift further to sea.
“We could see some showers, but most of the heavier rains and storms are mostly over the Bahamas,” said Dave Ross, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Miami.
While Bahamian authorities issued a tropical storm watch for Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco Islands Sunday, “severe” drought conditions remained in western areas of Martin and St. Lucie counties and an “extreme” drought lingered in eastern areas of those counties.
Although the water level at Lake Okeechobee, the principal source of irrigation and drinking water for the region, continued to show signs of recovery at 10.10 feet Sunday, it has a long way to go to avoid a water shortage in November, when the dry season begins.
Brett morphed from the season’s second tropical depression. The first, Tropical Storm Arlene, made landfall in Veracruz, Mexico, on June 30.
– Liz Balmaseda, Post staff writer
Tags: Bahamas, Tropical Storm Bret
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 17th, 2011 at 8:06 pm and is filed under 2011 season storms, Bret. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Tropical Storm Bret forms over northern Bahamas | Eye on the Storm
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