Hurricane Oscar formed Saturday off the coast of the Bahamas and brushed past the Turks and Caicos islands to the south during the night.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami characterized the storm as “tiny,” but hurricane warnings were in place for Turks and Caicos, the southeastern Bahamas and the north coast of Cuba in Holguin and Guantanamo provinces. Multiple inches of rain were forecast for those places.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were clocked at 85 mph with higher gusts.
Hurricane Oscar was captured on NOAA satellite imagery near Cuba on Oct. 19, 2024. APIts center was located about 70 miles West of Grand Turk Island, and it was heading west and expected to reach eastern Cuba Sunday night.
The hurricane’s approach comes as Cuba tries to recover from its worst blackout in at least two years, which left millions without power for two days this week.
Some electrical service was restored Saturday.
After arriving in Cuba, according to its forecast path as of Saturday night, Oscar is then expected to do a near U-turn and northeast toward the Bahamas.
Philippe Papin of the National Hurricane Center said it was somewhat unexpected that Oscar became a hurricane Saturday.
Oscar was as a Category 1 Hurricane at 2 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2024. National Hurricane Center / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
A Cuban uses motorcycle to light up a street during a nationwide blackout in Havana on Oct. 19, 2024. AFP via Getty Images“Unfortunately the system kind of snuck up a little bit on us,” Papin said.
Hours earlier, Tropical Storm Nadine formed off Mexico’s southern Caribbean coast, bringing heavy rain and tropical storm conditions to parts of Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula.
t moved inland across Belize and degenerated into a tropical depression.
