Idalia Forecast to Strengthen Again as Storm Approaches Bermuda

The remnants of Hurricane Idalia were forecast to regain strength and become a tropical storm again over the weekend as it approached Bermuda, days after the storm made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast and swept across the Southeast.

On Friday, the storm, which was once a powerful Category 4 hurricane, had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, with maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.

At 8 p.m. Eastern time, the storm was 80 miles west-southwest of Bermuda, where a tropical storm warning was in effect. The warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected in the area within 36 hours.

The storm’s center will move near or to the south of Bermuda on Saturday. Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 240 miles from the center.

Idalia is expected to bring rainfall of three to five inches across Bermuda through the weekend, the Hurricane Center said.

Idalia was expected to transition back into a tropical storm on Saturday and bring between three and five inches of rain and hazardous surf conditions to Bermuda over the weekend, the Hurricane Center said.

Bermuda, a British territory in the North Atlantic with about 65,000 residents, is nearly 900 miles east of South Carolina.

Idalia is one of four named storm systems in the Atlantic: Hurricane Franklin, which brought high winds to Bermuda and dangerous rip currents along the East Coast of the United States this week; Tropical Storm Jose, which is likely to be absorbed by Franklin this weekend; and Gert, which reached tropical storm strength for less than a day last month but regenerated early Friday into a tropical depression.

Forecasters said the models are in “relatively good agreement” that Gert will be absorbed by Idalia over the central Atlantic over the next three to four days.

Idalia made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday in a sparsely populated area of the Big Bend region, where the state’s peninsula meets the Panhandle.

It was the first major storm to hit Florida this hurricane season, but while it swamped the fishing villages and beach towns along the coast, the damage did not appear to be as bad as had been feared. President Biden plans to visit the state on Saturday.

Eduardo Medina and Johnny Diaz contributed reporting.