Thursday, November 5, 2009

Hurricane Ida moves across Nicaragua

A very small Hurricane Ida is now inland, moving across northeastern Nicaragua. As of 10:00 AM EST, Hurricane Ida was located about 75 miles north of Bluefields, Nicaragua with top winds of 75 mph. The current movement is off to the northwest or north-northwest around 6 mph.
Hurricane warning is in effect for the east coast of Nicaragua from Bluefields to Puerto Cabezas and then a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning extend northward to the Honduras border. The system is expected to stay in weak steering environment the next few days with a slow movement off to the north into eastern Honduras and then the Yucatan Channel.
Ida will weaken rapidly over land to a tropical depression by Friday before re-emerging into the Caribbean Sea north of Honduras early Saturday. Due to the very small wind field, waves from Ida will be less the 15 feet and any surge will be less than 3 feet. Heavy rain is a huge threat and will impact Nicaragua and Honduras. The heaviest amounts of 15 to 20 inches, with locally 25 inches are possible in eastern portions of Honduras and Nicaragua. Life-threatening flooding and mudslides will be likely as a result. Be ready and take precautions if you live in a low lying area or flood plain. On average, about one tropical storm develops every two years during the month of November and every three years a hurricane develops. The southwest Caribbean is the most favored location for this to occur.

The last season with a named storm in November was 2008 when Paloma developed and impacted the Cayman Islands and Cuba.

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