South Florida: Noel may become Cat. 1 Storm

By Karyn Chenoweth Oct 30, 2007, 13:43 GMT

This Envisat image captures the tropical Storm Noel moving westward across the Caribbean Sea. The image was acquired on 28 October 2007 at 14:54 UTC by the MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) instrument aboard Envisat. At the time of the acquisition, Noel was a tropical depression but formed into a tropical storm later on Sunday. EPA/esa

Orlando Local 6 news reports the latest projected path for Noel shows the storm system moving near South Florida as a possible Category 1 hurricane.

"Noel is going to make its closest approach to Florida during the day Wednesday," Local 6 meteorologist Larry Mowry said. "At (the storm's) closest approached to Florida, it could be just 50 miles offshore of Miami."

The storm is expected to turn to the northwest Tuesday and then curve to the north early Wednesday as it gets picked up by a cold front to the north.

"Just how close it gets to South Florida will all be determined by how fast a cold front picks up the storm and lifts it to the north and to the east," Mowry said. "At this point, it does not appear it will come on shore."

Local 6 reports that the brunt of the winds were expected to stay on the north and east side of the storm and away from Florida.

Some Central Florida coastal counties can expect significant beach erosion and wind gusts of up to 45 mph.

The worst of the weather is expected to be in the Bahamas.

The storm had sustained winds of 60 mph this morning and some strengthening is forecast.

Local 6 reports on Tuesday, Noel's center was about 270 miles south-southeast of Nassau, Bahamas. Forecasters said it had been moving toward the west at about 12 mph but was expected to turn toward the northwest later today.

Forecasters said a tropical storm watch, which means that tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours, may be issued for southeast Florida later in the day.

Noel is blamed for causing flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people in the Dominican Republic and left another 20 missing, officials said.