FLORIDA — Resembling an Andy Warhol painting, minus Marilyn Monroe, the National Hurricane Center’s latest radar satellite image featuring three colorful swirling circles would look at home on the wall of an art gallery.
The unusual image captures two hurricanes and a developing tropical depression simultaneously spinning in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
While Hurricane Franklin heads up the Eastern Seaboard, producing life-threatening surf and rip currents, Hurricane Idalia is strengthening into a major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Meanwhile, Tropical Depression 11 has formed over the open waters of the Central Atlantic Ocean, about 855 miles east-southeast of Bermuda.
While it’s not the first time the National Hurricane Center has monitored three storms in the Atlantic simutaneously, even seasoned forecasters admit this is an rare sight when photographed by radar from a satellite.
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Moving at about 2 mph, Tropical Depression 11 is expected to continue heading north through Tuesday night, gaining strength and possibly becoming a tropical storm as it continues as soon as Tuesday night.
Satellite wind data shows the tropical depression is producing maximum sustained winds near 35 mph with higher gusts.
It sits about 500 miles from Hurricane Franklin, which is currently 330 miles west-southwest of Bermuda moving north-northeast at about 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, making it a Category 3 hurricane.
A north-northeastward motion with a faster forward speed is expected during the next few days before Franklin steadily weakens last this week. However, before dying down, Franklin will stir up some waves along the Atlantic coast. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles.
Life-threatening surf and rip currents generated by Franklin are already affecting Bermuda and the East Coast of the United States.
Meanwhile, Floridians living along the Nature Coast from Pasco County to Big Bend are holding their breaths in anticipation of Hurricane Idalia making landfall, most likely Wednesday morning.
Idalia is currently 240 miles southwest of Tampa as it moves 15 mph north with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, making Idalia a Category 1 hurricane.
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