Currently en Puerto Rico — 28 de agosto, 2023: Franklin ya más distante

El tiempo, currently.

A pesar de su distancia, la tormenta tropical Franklin continuó produciendo condiciones inestables sobre Puerto Rico durante todo el fin de semana. Pero el lunes finalmente llegará aire más seco desde el sureste a medida que la tormenta se aleje hacia el norte, así que la actividad de lluvia disminuirá al comienzo de la semana. Los aguaceros serán limitadas a los que se desarrollen sobre tierra por la tarde y se concentrarán sobre el noroeste de la isla debido a los vientos del sureste. Más sol también aumentará las temperaturas a rangos bajos a medios de los 90 grados en las áreas costeras y urbanas, y es probable que haya Avisos de Calor Excesivo en el norte el lunes y martes.

—John Toohey-Morales

What you need to know, currently.

Tropical Storm Idalia formed over the weekend, and is ramping up its intensity on a trajectory towards Florida.

Tampa Bay is currently in the cone of uncertainty for Idalia. Up to 11 feet of storm surge is expected from Idalia near the exact landfall location, with about 3-5 feet expected in the Tampa Bay region.

Since records began in 1850, only 5 hurricanes have ever directly struck the Tampa Bay region. Since the last one struck in 1946, the region’s population has grown 10-fold, from around 300,000 to more than 3 million today.

Due to the gentle sloping of the seafloor on the Florida Gulf coast, this area is especially prone to coastal flooding from hurricanes. In a worst-case scenario, a major hurricane making landfall just north of Tampa Bay could funnel as much as 26 feet of storm surge into the bay. Last year, a study found that the Tampa Bay metro area was even more vulnerable than New Orleans to storm surge flooding — second only to Miami and New York in the US.

—Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

The fires in Maui have struck at the heart of Hawaiian heritage, and if you’d like to support survivors, here are good places to start:

The fires burned through the capital town of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the ancestral and present home to native Hawaiians on their original unceded lands. One of the buildings destroyed was the Na ‘Aikane o Maui cultural center, a gathering place for the Hawaiian community to organize and celebrate.

If you’d like to help the community rebuild and restore the cultural center, a fund has been established that is accepting donations — specify “donation for Na ‘Aikane” on this Venmo link.