Storm system near Florida falls apart as Teddy grows into huge storm

A storm system that was forecast to loop around Cuba and head back toward South Florida this week is no longer forecast to develop, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters said Tuesday night that the system, which was predicted to impact South Florida on Thursday and Friday, was not expected to become a tropical depression or storm.

The hurricane center is keeping an eye on the remaining storms in the tropics, including former Tropical Storm Beta, former Tropical Storm Paulette and former Tropical Storm Teddy.

Though each storm was at post-tropical storm strength by Wednesday, Teddy remained a huge storm — with hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 125 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 520 miles.

It still looks like an “impressive cyclone” on satellite images, with a circulation over 1,000 miles wide and a distinct eye, the hurricane center said.

Teddy is expected to bring large destructive waves to the southern coast of Nova Scotia through Wednesday, forecasters said. A 42-foot wave was reported at a Canadian buoy 90 miles from the storm’s center on Tuesday afternoon.

Teddy’s center was expected to pass over eastern Nova Scotia Wednesday and move near or over Newfoundland by Wednesday night and east of Labrador by Thursday.

As of 5 a.m. Wednesday, Teddy was moving north-northeast at 23 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph as the cyclone hovered 45 miles east of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The forecast path for Teddy as of 2 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. (National Hurricane Center)

A tropical storm warning has been issued for the south coast of Nova Scotia from Digby to Meat Cove, in Canada. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Nova Scotia from Meat Cove to Tidnish, as well as other parts of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

Former Tropical Storm Beta was a record-setter when it made landfall late Monday about 5 miles north of Port O’Connor, Texas.

It was the “ninth named storm to landfall in the mainland U.S. in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, tying a record that had stood for over 100 years,” according to The Weather Channel.

“That tied the 1916 season, which previously stood as the lone record-holder for the most number of mainland U.S. landfalls in any season,” according to Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

Beta also marked the first time a Greek-letter named storm made landfall in the continental U.S., according to the Associated Press.

A slow-moving Beta was forecast to dump up to a foot of rain to the middle and upper Texas coast, with isolated storm totals up to 20 inches.

As of Wednesday, flash flood watches were in effect across Southeast Texas and Southern Louisiana.

“We currently have both storm surge and rainfall going on right now,” National Weather Service meteorologist Amaryllis Cotto said Tuesday in Galveston.

Cotto estimated that six to 12 inches of rain had fallen as of early Tuesday. Dangerous flash flooding is expected through Wednesday, he said.

Storm surge up to 4 feet could occur in the Galveston and Beaumont areas through Wednesday morning, forecasters said. Flash flooding could also occur in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

On its latest forecast track, the remnants of Beta will move inland over southeastern Texas through Wednesday and then over Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday night through Friday.

In addition to posing a flood threat for Texas, Beta could bring up to five inches of rain to New Orleans. Up to 8 inches is forecast in Morgan City, La., according to the Weather Channel. Flash flooding could occur in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, forecasters said.

Beta formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, right after Tropical Storm Wilfred and Subtropical Storm Alpha in the Atlantic, bringing the hyperactive 2020 hurricane season up to 23 named storms.

It’s just the second time in history that forecasters have had to turn to the Greek alphabet for storm names.

In the last advisory on Beta, the storm was 30 miles east-southeast of Houston. It had maximum sustained winds of 30 mph and was inching east-northeast at 9 mph.

Former Hurricane Paulette regenerated into a tropical storm about 445 miles southeast of the Azores late Monday, but was downgraded for a second time late Tuesday.

Paulette had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was traveling east at 12 mph, the hurricane center in its last advisory on the post-tropical cyclone.

The next storms will be Gamma and Delta and Epsilon. This has only ever happened once before — during the record-shattering 2005 hurricane season that produced Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. In that year, Tropical Storm Zeta formed on Dec. 30, the 28th named storm.

Hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30. So far this season, there have been eight hurricanes and 23 tropical storms.

Laura was the season’s first major hurricane, making landfall in Cameron, La., as a Category 4 on Aug. 27. Hanna, Isaias and Marco were Category 1 hurricanes that made landfall in Padre Island, Texas; Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.; and at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Hurricane Nana impacted Central America.

The tropical weather experts at Colorado State University predicted that 2020 could possibly be the second-busiest season on record, behind only 2005, the year that produced Katrina and Wilma. In August, the federal government issued an updated forecast for the season, predicting as many as 25 storms, which is more than the agency has ever forecast.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.