Florence, the first major storm of the Atlantic season, has weakened to a tropical storm as it heads for Bermuda, but forecasters say it will regain strength early next week.
At 6:00 am today, Florence’s maximum sustained winds were 65 miles per hour and the storm, about 925 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and about 985 miles east-southeast of Bermuda, was moving west at seven miles per hour
“Tropical Storm Florence is expected to strengthen into a hurricane again in the next 48 hours.
“There is still uncertainty in the long term track but Florence is likely to be upgraded to a potential threat to Bermuda later today due to it coming within 460 miles in the following 72 hours,” the Bermuda Weather Service said.
Two cruise ships, the MV Sirena and the Norwegian Escape, have cancelled visits scheduled for next Wednesday, the Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre said.
The Emergency Measures Organisation, which is expected to meet on Monday, announced that public transport, schools and government offices would operate as normal that day.
Florence had attained Category 4 strength by Wednesday, when it was packing 130 mph winds, before it weakened to a tropical storm today, but was predicted to rebound as a Category 3 storm by Tuesday morning.
