MIAMI, (Reuters) – Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season, revved up quickly as it headed toward Bermuda yesterday, while the remnants of Tropical Storm Ana dissipated without threatening the U.S. Gulf oil patch.
Once a worrisome storm, Ana was little more than a cluster of thunderstorms as it raced through the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico on a track that could take it into the eastern Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, Bill was steering well clear of the U.S. Gulf energy fields on a path that would take it north of the Caribbean islands in the general direction of Bermuda. Forecasters said it would be west of the British territory by Saturday morning.
Energy markets quaver at Gulf storms because the region produces a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas and some forecasters noted that Ana had already regenerated once.
Storm watches and warnings for Ana were dropped and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the system had lost its swirling wind pattern, but could still bring heavy rainfall to the northern Caribbean islands in its path.
Ana drenched Puerto Rico as it raced toward Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It was about 145 miles (230 km) east-southeast of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic when the hurricane center issued its final advisory on the system yesterday afternoon.
In the mid-Atlantic, Hurricane Bill’s top winds reached 90 mph (145 kph), just below Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the Miami-based hurricane center said.
Forecasters expected it to hit Category 3, with winds of more than 110 mph (177 kph) by Wednesday. Category 3, 4 and 5 storms are considered “major” hurricanes, the most destructive kind.
At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) Bill was about 975 miles (1,570 km) east of the Lesser Antilles and headed west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph), the hurricane center said. It was expected to curve more to the north as it nears Bermuda later in the week.
The timing of that turn will determine whether Bermuda is spared a direct hit and whether the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast feels the storm’s outer fringes.
