Tropical Storm Josephine closer to land, Kyle moving away

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Kyle was moving away from the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States early Saturday as Tropical Storm Josephine continued its crawl toward islands in the Caribbean.

Threats to land appeared to be minimal from both storms, according to the US National Hurricane Center’s 11:00 a.m. advisories.

Kyle was centred 360 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, while Josephine was 200 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands.

Josephine had maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour, forecasters said and was tracking west-northwest at 16 miles per hour, while Kyle was churning east-northeast at 21 miles per hour.

Kyle’s maximum sustained winds were clocked at 50 miles per hour.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect for either storm.

Josephine was forecast to bring one to three inches of rain to parts of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

It’s been an active Atlantic hurricane season and forecasters predict several more named storms are on the way.

So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine and Kyle have set records for being the earliest named Atlantic storms of their respective place in the alphabet. Only Hanna and Isaias this year have developed into hurricanes.

Before Kyle, the earliest “K-named” storm was Katrina, which formed August 24, 2005, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

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