Tropical Storm Philippe tracker: Follow path as storm heads toward Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
Tropical Storm Philippe is forecast to move toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend as it drifts east of the Leeward Islands, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday morning.
The storm has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and is expected to slowly weaken over the weekend, although parts of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and could see heavy rain and potential flooding from the storm.
The hurricane center said those areas could see 1 to 3 inches of rain this weekend and into early next week, which may produce "isolated urban and small stream flooding impacts."
Tropical Storm Philippe "poses no direct threat to Florida over the next 5-7 days, at least," according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
In addition to Philippe, forecasters were also watching a tropical wave that was even further out in the Atlantic. That wave is likely to become Tropical Storm Rina over the next couple of days.
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Tropical Storm Philippe path tracker
Tropical Storm Philippe spaghetti models
A note about the spaghetti models: Model plot illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses the top four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, Paste BN