Storm Ida moves into Caribbean, may strengthen on path to Gulf
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| Published on Saturday, November 7, 2009 |
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Tropical Storm Ida: Five-day forecast track. NOAA/NHC graphic
By Chris Dolmetsch
NEW YORK, USA (Bloomberg) -- Storm Ida moved back over the Caribbean Sea on Friday after pummeling Honduras and Nicaragua with rain as it heads north toward the Gulf of Mexico, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The tropical depression was centered about 65 miles northwest of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the border of Honduras and Nicaragua, the Miami-based agency said in an advisory at 4 p.m. local time. Ida is moving north at about 8 mph and is expected to turn to the north-northwest and approach Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsulaon Sunday.
Ida’s maximum sustained winds dropped to 35 mph Friday, about half the intensity of Thursday, when it hit Nicaragua as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph. The storm is expected to regain strength and become a tropical storm Saturday, with winds as strong as 73 mph.
Rain from the system has let up over Central America, although Ida is expected to produce another 2 inches over northeastern Honduras, with heavier amounts in higher elevations. Precipitation from the storm may start to fall over eastern parts of the Yucatan Saturday.
The agency’s five-day prediction shows the system moving over the western Caribbean Sea as a tropical storm and emerging on Nov. 9 into the Gulf of Mexico, home to about a quarter of US oil production. By Nov. 11, the eye of the storm is predicted to be about 200 miles south of the Florida Panhandle.
A second storm is developing in the southern Gulf and will cause winds and seas to pick up along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, said Joe Bastardi, an expert senior meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather.com.
“This is going to be a three-day problem at least,” Bastardi said in a statement. “Seas 15 to 20 feet and a 200- mile-wide area of strong gale-force winds 40 to 50 mph will mean a likely disruption of normal oil production in the northwest Gulf this weekend.”
Oil and natural-gas producers with platforms in the Gulf of Mexico haven’t made any plans to evacuate workers as Ida approaches, according to a helicopter company that provides storm rescues for the energy industry.
“We’re monitoring it and our clients are monitoring it, but there are no evacuation plans right now,” said Danny Holder, Gulf of Mexico business unit director for Air Logistics, which has about 140 rescue helicopters in the region. | | | | Reads : 749 | | | |
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