No it’s not snow or ice, but Elsa’s presence is known in the Atlantic.
Elsa becomes the 5th named storm of the 2021 Hurricane season, and it’s barreling towards the Caribbean. Florida currently sits in the projected path of the storm.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Elsa was centered more than 800 miles east of the Windward Islands as of early Thursday.
Elsa will then move across the central and western Caribbean over the weekend. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba might see heavy rainfall and strong winds from this system during that time.
Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico are included in the long-range forecast path from the NHC, however, it’s not certain what, if any, impacts it might bring to these areas early next week.
That’s because there are some important forecast factors yet to come into focus once this system tracks into the Caribbean that will influence its future.
One of those is how much land interaction with Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and/or Cuba there will be to possibly weaken this system over the holiday weekend. Too much land interaction could disrupt Elsa enough and prevent it from staying intact past the Caribbean.
If Elsa tracks toward Florida, later Monday or Tuesday appears to be the earliest this system could impact parts of South Florida.
The name Elsa is new to the list of rotating names being used this season. This year’s list was last used in 2015, but Erika was the “E” storm that year.
Erika was retired after it caused deadly and destructive flooding in the Caribbean Island of Dominica. Elsa replaced it.