Bahamas Tropical Storm Nightmare, South Dakota Flood, Vermont Wind

Potential Tropical Cyclone #9 building steam this morning near the Bahamas
and likely to become Tropical Storm Humberto within a couple days.

This is so, so NOT what the northern Bahamas needs.

Things are still in full crisis mode in the devastated northern islands of the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian a couple weeks back.

Now, the same area is under a tropical storm warning. 

Normally, the Bahamas can manage a "mere" tropical storm, but torrential rains and winds in excess of 39 mph are going to make a terrible situation worse.

The culprit is something now called "Potential Tropical Cyclone #9." This is the National Hurricane Center's way of alerting the public to a near-term threat from a developing system that hasn't quite made it to tropical storm intensity. Yet.

Forecasts for Potential Tropical Cyclone #9 are still all over the place, but it appears, just like Dorian, it will slowly, grindingly head through the Bahamas and probably near the Florida east coast. The only good news is it won't be a Category 5 hurricane. Chances are, it will stay below hurricane strength.

But Potential Tropical Cyclone #9 will probably bring a prolonged period of gusty winds and heavy rain to the Bahamas, and a tropical storm warning is out for many of those islands, including the ones hardest hit by Dorian.

A tropical storm watch is in effect for much the Florida east coast this weekend.

Given the uncertain forecast for the path of this wannabe tropical storm, I'm sure there will be updates and changes to its expected impacts.

SOUTH DAKOTA FLOODS

South Dakota cannot seem to catch a break this year. Or last year even.

Last year was among the wettest on record in parts of South Dakota. This year is even wetter. All this was made worse by widespread downpours this week.  A large part of southeastern South Dakota received four to as much as ten inches of rain in 48 hours earlier this week.

This is in addition to the the three tornadoes that blasted through Sioux Falls, South Dakota the other day.

Widespread flooding is occurring in South Dakota.  Parts of the Big Sioux River reached record high levels. The previous highest flood along the river near Dell Rapids was set just a few months ago in March, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.

Parts of Interstate 90 in eastern South Dakota also shut down because of flooding. Much of the town of Madison was under water Thursday after six to 10 inches of rain fell in the area.

Sioux Falls has had 34 inches of rain so far this year. Normally, only 20 inches or so should have fallen by now.  It's been so wet that parts of the James River between Huron and Yankton have been continuously above flood stage since March.

Video of Madison, South Dakota is at the bottom of this post.

VERMONT WIND

Once we get into autumn, cold fronts and storms can cause relatively strong winds in Vermont, especially when south winds funnel up the Champlain Valley.

This type of thing looks like it will happen late Friday night and Saturday, when gusts in the Champlain Valley could reach 45 mph.

Leaves are still on the trees, obviously. In strong winds, the leaves act like little sails, catching the wind and bending branches more than if the foliage was already on the ground. This makes it more likely we'll see a few scattered trees and branches down and a few spot power failures.

This won't be a major event - no big destruction with this. But don't be surprised if your yard is littered with twigs and branches by Saturday evening.

VIDEO:

Here's a drone video of serious flooding in Madison, South Dakota: