THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609150042
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 42 lines
Ready for another hurricane? Hortense is gone, but Fausto is coming - well, what's left of it, anyway.
After slipping through a safe lane between the Outer Banks and Bermuda - brushing both with some clouds but little more - weakening Hurricane Hortense sped to the north-northeast Saturday.
It's expected to weaken further today as it passes the Canadian maritimes - the center moving near or across extreme eastern Nova Scotia overnight.
In its wake, the forecast for Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks looks dry and pleasant, if cool, into Monday.
There's nothing else threatening in the Atlantic.
Nonetheless, North Carolina and Virginia are going to weather the remains of yet another cyclone, this one coming from the Pacific.
``The nice weather will come to an end on Monday as a weak low pressure system, associated with the remnants of Hurricane Fausto, will approach from the west,'' the National Weather Service said Saturday, ``bringing increasing cloudiness and a chance of rain and possibly thunderstorms.''
At 2 p.m. Saturday, Fausto - reduced to a tropical depression with sustained winds of only 35 mph - was near Chihuahua, Mexico, and moving northeast at 20 mph.
Computer models show the remnants of Fausto ``reaching Texas in 12 to 18 hours and reamplifying,'' said Miles Lawrence, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. ``This could be a rain producer over Texas.''
This afternoon, the storm is expected to be near the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It's then expected to continue eastward, eventually coming into the mid-Atlantic region.
By Monday, we should see increasing cloudiness with showers late in the day. It will remain partly cloudy Tuesday with more showers possible.
No big deal.
As for Hortense, at 5 p.m. Saturday it was about 125 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, moving north-northeast near 35 mph. That motion was expected to bring the center near or across extreme eastern Nova Scotia overnight. Maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph, and Hortense was expected to fall below hurricane strength - 74 mph - by today, Lawrence said. by CNB