The wet weather forecasters expected over the weekend arrived Tuesday, and is predicted to hang around as an unwelcome guest through the week.
The territory is on a flash flood warning, and rainfall totals could reach one to two inches of rain a day through Wednesday.
“I don’t think you’re going to get a lot of sunshine today,” meteorologist Brian Seeley at the National Weather Service in San Juan, said Tuesday morning.
It’s going to rain Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and possibly Saturday too, he said. However, Seeley said it won’t be continuous rain but rather intermittent showers blowing through the region.
“It won’t rain all the time,” he said.
The rainy weather is part of a low pressure system now moving through the area that could eventually develop into a storm named Otto, but if that happens it won’t be until it’s well past the Virgin Islands. The National Hurricane Center is currently giving the weather system a 60 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression in the next 48 hours. It’s moving into an area where conditions are more favorable for development.
Seeley said the worst of what he expects for Tuesday morning was right over the Virgin Islands at 7:15 a.m. At Weather Station Zephyr, located at Ajax Peak, St. John, the rain was coming down in sheets, bringing the total since midnight to .84 inches. Thunder was also booming.
Seeley warned that flash flooding could be an issue, with up to four inches of rain in some areas.
Wind gusts are expected to reach 15 to 20 mph, with some areas seeing higher winds.
The weather is moving southwest to northeast, eventually turning more south to north. This is a departure from the east to west weather the territory normally sees. This concerned Seeley, who said that the direction could cause erosion problems in south facing areas like Frederiksted.
“And there’s the potential for minor beach erosion,” he said.
He said that Frederiksted has had problems like this in the past so residents should be on the alert.
Additionally, Seeley pointed out that mudslides could also become an issue as the rain continues to fall over the next several days.
