THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 1996 TAG: 9608260349
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 40 lines
As one hurricane faded, another was christened Friday. And a tropical wave spinning off of Africa may soon become the season's sixth tropical depression.
Dolly made a second landfall in Mexico on Friday, coming ashore as a minimal hurricane with 80-mph winds and heavy rainfall just south of Tampico. Once ashore, the storm rapidly lost strength and was downgraded to a tropical depression at 5 p.m. But it continued to produce heavy precipitation there and well north into Texas, where the soaking was welcome after months of drought.
Meanwhile, forecasters were turning their attention to Edouard, which reached hurricane intensity Friday as its sustained winds topped out at 75 mph. That makes it the fourth hurricane this season.
The storm is days from land and probably a week from posing a threat to the U.S. coast - but that also means it has plenty of time to strengthen, which is what meteorologists expect it to do.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami expects the storm to have top sustained winds of near 100 mph by Sunday night.
At 5 p.m. Friday, Edouard was about 1,385 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and moving west at 15 mph. That general motion was expected to continue through today.
In the Tampico area of Mexico, the Mexican Meteorological Service reported one death from Dolly as thousands of people fled their homes in the nation's northern Gulf Coast.
At 5 p.m. Friday, Dolly was about 90 miles east southeast of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and was moving west near 16 mph. That motion was expected to continue overnight. Maximum sustained winds were down to near 35 mph, and the storm was expected to break apart into a broad area of low pressure by tonight.
Even as they tracked Dolly's remnants and Edouard's growth, forecasters were watching a strong wave moving west through the Cape Verde Islands in the far eastern Atlantic. It was becoming better organized Friday afternoon and was expected to become a tropical depression by today.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE EDOUARD by CNB