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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Magnitude 4.5 Quake Felt in Virgin Islands

First torrential rains, then a 4.5 earthquake at 8 p.m. Wednesday. What next?
“Tonight, Friday and Saturday could be drier,” Ernesto Morales, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Juan, said of the weather at mid-day Thursday.
As for the earthquake, it occurred 9.7 miles north of Charlotte Amalie (18.5 degrees north latitude, 64.9 degrees west longitude), approximately 76 miles under the surface of the sea floor.
A 2.9 earthquake followed at 3:09 a.m. Thursday, about 25 miles west-northwest of Road Town in the British Virgin Islands (18.8 degrees north latitude, 64.7 degrees west longitude). That quake was 2.6 miles under the ocean floor.
Neither posed a tsunami threat.
That wet mess—which flooded streets on Tuesday and continued to dump rain on Wednesday, filling cisterns—is now Tropical Depression 3. It formed over the Bahamas and is heading for the Florida Keys, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Coast.
The National Hurricane Center gave it the tropical depression designation at Thursday’s 11 a.m. update and expects it to become Tropical Storm Bonnie.
The formation of that tropical depression is helping to dry out the Virgin Islands, Morales said. “All the moisture associated with it is moving with it,” Morales said.
However, he said that afternoon showers will probably occur.
Saturday night a weak tropical wave is expected to move through the area, increasing the chance of showers, Morales said.
“On Sunday we’ll still have some moisture, so they’ll be isolated scattered showers,” Morales said.

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