Hurricane Oscar Headed Toward Cuba for Anticipated Monday Landfall

Saturday was a busy day for tropical development in the Atlantic basin with two named storms coming to life and one quickly strengthening into a hurricane. Here is a look at what has been going on this weekend in the tropics and what may still lie ahead heading into the new week.

Latest on Hurricane Oscar

Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) had been tracking a tropical rainstorm for days in an area north of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. That feature finally became organized enough to take on formal tropical characteristics and form what is now Oscar. After spending just a few hours as a tropical storm on Saturday afternoon, Oscar intensified into a hurricane early in the afternoon.

Although dry air and strong wind shear worked to stymie the development of Oscar earlier in the week, those factors both dropped off on Saturday and allowed the storm to develop. Oscar is forecast to move to the west, bringing heavy rain to those in its path.

Oscar is predicted to move to the southwest and make landfall along the coast of Cuba early Monday. From there, the storm is likely to turn to the northeast and push toward the Bahamas.

Building seas, rough surf conditions, heavy rain, and breezy conditions are on the horizon for eastern Cuba and potentially into the Turks and Caicos as Oscar moves farther into the Atlantic. Flash flooding and mudslides will be a primary concern for the mountainous terrains of the islands in this region. Sporadic power outages are also possible.

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