The Tribune

DORIAN has the potential to become a Tropical Storm again as it tracks through the Bahamas towards Florida this weekend.

Regardless of the system’s official classification, it will continue to produce torrential downpours and squalls over the Bahamas through Saturday.

Freeport was experiencing drenching rain and breezy conditions at noon today. Overnight hours a gusty squall affected Nassau.

Into Saturday, Dorian could also enhance showers and thunderstorms as far west as the Florida Peninsula, despite a wedge of dry air west of the centre.

Dorian showed signs of life last night and was attempting to develop a circulation over the Florida Straits. However, the bulk of the showers and thunderstorms were located on the eastern half of the system.

Dorian first became a tropical storm on July 24. The system was downgraded by the National Hurricane Center on July 27 and has been classified as a tropical wave or tropical rainstorm since then.

In order for the system to be a tropical storm, it must have sustained winds of 39 mph or greater and a complete circular rotation about a defined centre.

This morning Dorian appeared as an elongated cluster of slowly rotating thunderstorms over the Bahamas.

The system may interact somewhat with an old front to the north, giving thunderstorm activity from northeastern Florida to the Carolina beaches a boost at some point into the weekend.

That front is likely to scoop up Dorian and guide it northeastward, reports Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist at AccuWeather.com.

PICTURE: Dorian appears as a swirl of thunderstorms over the Bahamas on Friday afternoon. Image from NASA GOES Project Science courtesy of AccuWeather.com.