The storm was about 350 miles (563 km) east of Belize City blowing maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph), and is expected to reach the coast of Belize, famed for its coral reefs, by Thursday morning. And although Howard isn’t expected to have any appreciable effect on Hawaii, the former Hurricane Darby, which came ashore on the Big Island as a tropical storm 10 days ago before hammering Oahu with lightning, heavy rain and flooding, was also projected to miss the islands.
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Strong ridging associated with high pressure acts as a brick wall for tropical cyclones (areas of deep low pressure) and won’t allow the storms to gain latitude.
MIAMI (AP) Forecasters say Tropical Storm Earl is expected to strengthen into a hurricane before it makes landfall.
WFTV reports on news coming out of the National Weather Service that offers a spotlight on a 25-miler-per-hour wave that could very quickly evolve into Tropical Storm Earl. However as the system continues to deepen, it will begin to slow down affording it the time needed to possibly obtain hurricane status.
Tropical storm watches have been issued for the Cayman Islands.
Tropical Storm Earl formed this afternoon in the Central Caribbean.
“The center of the system should reach land late Wednesday or Wednesday night”, explained AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.
Interests in the western Caribbean Sea, primarily the north coast of Honduras, Belize, and the Yucatan Peninsula should monitor products issued by their local meteorological services for possible watches and warnings.
A weather disturbance in the Caribbean was upgraded to Tropical Storm Earl on Tuesday after its killed six people and caused destruction in the Dominican Republic. Much of the Coastal Bend has been in a rainfall deficit for most of the summer, but now there is a chance to play a little bit of catch up in the rain department (key words: “a little bit”).
“A second landfall could occur in northeastern Mexico during Friday or this weekend, depending on the system’s track”, he said.
Check back for continued updates on this storm system.
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State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, gets 78 percent of its crude output from the Gulf of Mexico, including sites in the Bay of Campeche.
