marlowe
/ 2007-08-20 23:44
/
portfel
/
"One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)"
Pozwolę sobie na dłuższą wklejkę... Nie bijcie...
Hurricane Dean has moved away from Jamaica after lashing the island nation with sustained winds of at least 111 miles per hour, and gusts of at least 138 miles per hour. This came from an observation in Kingston as Dean swept by to the city's south.
Some locations along the south shore may have experienced even more ferocious winds. The north shore escaped the worst that Dean had to offer but likely experienced hurricane gusts and tropical storm-force sustained winds during the height of the storm.
At 5 p.m. ET, the center of Hurricane Dean was located about 270 miles east of Chetumal, Mexico. It is moving toward the west at about 20 mph. Dean is expected to continue on a westward track throughout the remainder of the day. Maximum sustained winds are near 150 mph with further strengthening likely. In fact, Dean may reach category 5 status before it makes landfall.
The Cayman Islands have felt the greatest impact today but fortunately they have avoided a direct hit. Earlier today, the center of Dean passed about 125 miles to the south of Grand Cayman. Heavy rain, high winds, dangerous surf, and storm surge have all impacted the Caymans today, however, the weather will be improving there dramatically within the next 12 to 18 hours.
Well in advance of the storm, weather conditions are now beginning to deteriorate over the eastern Yucatan peninsula and northern Belize. The center of Hurricane Dean is expected to make landfall very early Tuesday morning as a destructive category 5 storm north of the border between Belize and the Mexican state of Quintana Roo and south of Tulum. It is here where a water rise of 8 to 12 feet can be expected with monstrous waves of 25 to 30 feet.
The resorts of Cancun and Cozumel will not feel the full brunt of Hurricane Dean but waves on the order of 18 to 24 feet are expected to crash along the shores resulting in severe beach erosion. Squalls of tropical storm-force winds and heavy rains will rotate in across the resorts tonight and into the early morning hours.
Dean will then cross the Yucatan Peninsula and re-emerge into the Bay of Campeche, in a much weaker state, Tuesday night and make a final landfall somewhere along the mainland Mexican Coast sometime on Wednesday.
Various hurricane and tropical storm watches and warnings are in place.
Remember that watches mean that conditions are possible within 36 hours; warnings mean that conditions are expected within 24 hours.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, a tropical wave is bringing disorganized showers a few hundred miles north of the Leeward Islands. There is some potential for slow development with this system as it moves to the west.