Hurricane forms in Caribbean, may head toward Gulf
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| Published on Thursday, November 5, 2009 |
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Hurricane Ida: Three-day forecast track. NOAA graphic
By Heather Langan
MIAMI, USA (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ida formed just off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and may enter the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm within five days, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Ida was approaching the coast of Nicaragua, with the eye about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north-northeast of the town of Bluefields. It was moving northwest at 7 miles per hour, the center said today in an advisory on its Web site at about 6 a.m. Nicaraguan time.
The storm had maximum sustained winds of almost 75 mph, making it Category 1, the least intense hurricane on the five- step Saffir-Simpson scale. Ida may return to tropical-storm strength, with winds below 74 mph, Thursday as it moves inland over Nicaragua, before weakening into a depression, the center said. The system is predicted to regain strength after it moves over Honduras and enter the Gulf as a tropical storm.
A hurricane warning was declared for Nicaragua’s eastern coast from Bluefields north to Puerto Cabezas, while a hurricane watch and a tropical-storm warning were in effect northward to the border with Honduras. A tropical-storm warning also was in place south of Bluefields to the border with Costa Rica.
Eastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras are forecast to get 15 to 20 inches (38 to 51 centimeters) of rain from the system, with 25 inches possible, the center said. Islands off Nicaragua may get as much as 7 inches. Life-threatening flash floods and mudslides are possible, the US agency said.
A five-day prediction for Ida’s track puts the eye of the storm just north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula early on Nov. 10 as it moves into the Gulf, home to about 26 percent of US oil production. | | | | Reads : 1080 | | | |
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