THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608250048
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 42 lines
Hurricane Alley has come alive.
With one big hurricane and another tropical depression already tracking west, a new tropical wave was spinning off the West African coast Saturday, falling into line directly behind its predecessors.
And forecasters were becoming increasingly worried about the future of the lead storm - the most powerful hurricane seen yet this season. Edouard exploded in strength Saturday, much faster than forecasters had expected. Its top winds nearly doubled in 24 hours, hitting 140 mph by 11 p.m. Saturday, with gusts to 175 mph.
Edouard is now classed as a powerful hurricane, a category four on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale.
``If this thing starts to move a little bit north and west, that would be good news,'' said Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel in Atlanta. ``And if it doesn't, the folks who live in the (Leeward and Caribbean) islands better start to worry.''
All three systems formed in the far eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands. The area - dubbed Hurricane Alley - is a breeding ground at this time of year and the birthplace for many of the Atlantic's most powerful cyclones.
It was the same area where Hurricane Andrew formed in 1992.
There's no way to know yet where Edouard or any of its followers will end up, however.
``In the next two or three days, it should be somewhere in the vicinity of the (Leeward) Islands,'' Cantore said. ``But we cannot say that for sure right now.''
At 11 p.m. Saturday, Edouard was about 1,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, moving west-northwest at 14 mph. That motion was expected to continue overnight with a gradual turn to the west northwest today.
Edouard's strength is, for now, proving to be the nemesis of the storm right behind it. Tropical depression 6 showed no evidence of intensifying Saturday as it passed over the same territory where Edouard was a day earlier.
At 11 p.m., the depression was about 500 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, moving west near 16 mph.
Meanwhile, another tropical wave is moving off the coast of Africa. It had not yet organized into a depression, however. by CNB