Small tropical storm Gonzalo remained on a road to the Windward Islands on Friday without any change in strength.
The National Hurricane Center still believes there is a chance that Gonzalo, the seventh 2020 storm in the Atlantic, could become the first hurricane of the season.
Gonzalo is forecast to track the Windward Islands on Saturday, and hurricane alerts and tropical storm warnings were in effect for some of those islands as of Friday morning.
However, Gonzalo is a small storm, and its strongest winds reach only 25 miles away from its center, according to forecasters.
Could Gonzalo eventually affect the United States?
It didn’t seem as likely as Friday. The hurricane center believes Gonzalo will weaken after he moves to the Caribbean on Saturday, and that it could fall apart in the middle of next week.
As of 7 am CDT on Friday, Tropical Storm Gonzalo was located about 580 miles east of the South Windward Islands and was moving west at 15 mph.
Gonzalo had winds of 60 mph, which has not changed since Thursday. The hurricane center said “a certain” strengthening is possible over the next day or two, “and there is still a chance that Gonzalo could become a hurricane before reaching the Windward Islands.”
Tropical storm warnings have been added to hurricane alerts on the islands as of Friday morning:
* A tropical storm warning is in effect for Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
* A hurricane watch is in place for Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
* A tropical storm watch is in effect for Tobago, Granada and their dependencies.
On the hurricane center forecast track, Gonzalo will approach the islands tonight and move through them on Saturday and into the eastern Caribbean.
Tropical storm conditions will be possible starting tonight in the surveillance areas, the hurricane center said.
Gonzalo could bring 2 to 5 inches of rain to the islands, with isolated areas of up to 7 inches until Sunday night.
Gonzalo shares the stage with two other tropical systems.
One of them is in the Gulf. Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to strengthen and make landfall in Texas on Saturday.
Hawaii also closely monitors Hurricane Douglas in the Pacific. Douglas is a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 mph starting Friday morning and will target the Big Island starting Sunday.
Douglas is expected to weaken by the time he gets to Hawaii, but it could still be a hurricane when crossing near or over some of the islands.
Tropical Storm Gonzalo is a small storm located at the bottom right of this image.
