Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms

In the Eastern Pacific Ocean:

Tropical storm Douglas is located about 465 mi (745 km) WSW of the southern tip of Baja California.

Tropical storm Elida is located about 125 mi (205 km) SSE of Manzanillo, Mexico. No warnings in effect.

In the Atlantic:

Tropical storm Arthur is located about 90 mi (145 km) ESE of Cape Canaveral Florida. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the East Coast of Florida.

The Atlantic's first storm of 2014 is here, as Tropical Storm Arthur was named at 11 am EDT Tuesday by NHC. Arthur's formation date of July 1 comes a week before the typical July 8 appearance of the Atlantic's first named storm, but is the latest the first named storm of the season has appeared since 2009, when Tropical Storm Ana formed on August 12. Arthur was drifting northwest at 5 mph towards the east coast of Central Florida early Tuesday afternoon. Long-range radar out of Melbourne, Florida on Tuesday afternoon showed that bands of heavy rain from Arthur were affecting the Northwest Bahamas, and the top sustained winds observed in the Bahamas as of 2 pm EDT Tuesday were 36 mph, gusting to 41 mph at Settlement Point in the Northwest Bahama Islands at 8 am EDT. Top winds Tuesday morning and early afternoon at the buoy 23 miles east of Cape Canaveral, Florida were 22 mph, gusting to 26 mph, with a significant wave height of 4.3'.

NewsBytes:

Paraguay and Brazil - Floods have displaced over 250,000 people from their homes in Paraguay and Brazil. In Paraguay, Unicef said that 200,000 people were displaced after heavy rains triggered river floods. According to the UN body, the total number of families displaced was estimated at about 40,000.

Floods have hit nine of Paraguay's 17 provinces, with the capital the hardest hit by the swollen Paraguay River. Brazil's southern states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, more than 50,000 people have been displaced by flooding, authorities said. About 6,000 people have seen their homes damaged by floods or buried under mudslide. More than 100 towns were affected by heavy rains, with the state of emergency declared in 13 towns in Rio Grande do Sul and 18 in Santa Catarina. Several federal and state highways in the region were damaged by the floods, and power and water supplies were interrupted in some communities.

Reports said some 12,000 people in Argentina have also been evacuated.