New York to Boston Needs to Watch Tropical Storm Henri
Cape Cod, Maritimes Face Hurricane Risk as Henri Strengthens
(Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Henri will likely strengthen into a hurricane later this week and could take a swipe at New England and possibly New York to start next week.
With winds of 70 miles (113 kilometers) per hour, Henri is just below hurricane strength as it churns in the Atlantic about 790 miles south of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. advisory. The current forecast calls for it to likely graze Cape Cod, but it is possible it could menace an area stretching from New York to Maine on Monday.
“New York City to Boston really needs to watch this one,” said Jim Rouiller, lead meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group.
While errors in the forecast five days in advance can be as wide as the distance between New York and Boston, trends in predictive computer models have taken the storm further to the west, where it can gather strength over the warm water of the Gulf Stream, and closer to the U.S. coast. A strike in either New York or New England would bring flooding storm surge to a densely populated part of the U.S. with high real estate values. Swells from Henri will reach New York and the East Coast by the end of the week.
While it isn’t time to panic yet, Rouiller said it is “a huge concern for the millions of people who could be directly affected by it.”
A high pressure system is working in conjunction with a storm coming across the Midwest and Great Lakes to steer Henri up the coast.
Eight storms have been named across the Atlantic in 2021, a milestone that is usually passed in mid-September, and so far five have hit the U.S. The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred are wringing out heavy rain across Pennsylvania and New York.
Henri is one of two storms currently in the Atlantic. The other, Grace, became a hurricane Wednesday and is forecast to strike Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Thursday, and then hit the country again overnight Friday into Saturday.
Grace will likely regain hurricane strength after being weakened by the Yucatan and then strike Mexico’s coastline somewhere near Tampico. Pemex, the country’s state-run oil company, has instituted emergency plans and is monitoring Grace.
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