MIAMI — Rafael continued to weaken on Sunday as it spun over the Gulf of Mexico; while the late-season storm will not directly reach the United States, it will cause dangerous beach conditions along the Gulf Coast.
By Sunday afternoon, the tropical storm had weakened to a post-tropical residual low.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) cautioned that Rafael could bring life-threatening rip currents and surf to the Gulf Coast through the weekend, in addition to the risk of flash flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The storm, which delivered catastrophic hurricane-force winds, torrential rain, and a life-threatening storm surge, has most severely affected Cuba and sections of the western Caribbean.
A meteorological sensor in Havana’s Casablanca district reported a wind gust of 93 mph about the time Rafael made ashore Wednesday afternoon. Because of the storm’s effects, Cuba was thrown into darkness.
According to the NHC’s most recent advisory, Rafael is more than 345 miles north-northwest of Progreso, a port city on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, and moving at 3 mph.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Rafael is forecast to meander over the central Gulf of Mexico until Sunday night before turning south and south-southwest on Monday and Tuesday.