The most powerful Atlantic storm of this year, strengthening Hurricane Igor, whipped up dangerous swells in the Caribbean yesterday as it barreled west-northwest in the direction of Bermuda.
Igor, packing sustained winds of 250kph, is a category-four hurricane, the second highest rating on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale.
And as it churned through the Atlantic, the US National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Karl was expected to reach Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula early yesterday morning.
Though still comparatively weak, the system threatened to dump more rain on Mexico, which is struggling with flooding in southeastern states including Veracruz and Oaxaca.
Almost 1 million people were affected by flooding this month alone, which left 25 dead. The rains, which began in July, are set to worsen as the season continues to almost the end of the year.
More than one-third of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz has been hit by flooding that affected about 500,000 people, Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera said.
Igor is not expected to make landfall for days, but forecasters said storm swells would reach Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by early yesterday and move from there to Bermuda.
They said it was too early to know if it would be a direct hit or how strong it would be by then.
Dangerous surf was also affecting the Leeward islands, and was expected to affect some of the Bahamas yesterday.
“These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” the Miami-based NHC warned.
“Much more detail on Igor will be covered in the next few days, as it likely becomes a potential threat” to land, forecasters said.
At 3am GMT yesterday, Igor’s eye was located about 975km east of the northern Leeward islands and it was heading west-northwestward at 15kph, US experts said.
Though the storm’s strength was expected to fluctuate in the coming days, Igor was expected to remain powerful through today.
Of more immediate threat to land was Karl, which the NHC said could bring coastal flooding and up to 20.3cm of rain to Mexico and parts of Belize and northern Guatemala.
“A storm surge is expected to produce some coastal flooding near and to the north of where the center makes landfall,” the center said. “The surge will be accompanied by large and damaging waves.”
“Karl is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 3 [7.62cm] to 5 inches [12.7cm] over the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize and northern Guatemala, with isolated maximum amounts of 8 inches [20.3cm],” the center added.
A third weather system, Hurricane Julia, continued to strengthen rapidly.
At 5:30am GMT it had surged to category three strength, with top sustained winds at 205kph, tracking slowly west-northwest.
The storm was not close to any land mass for now, the NHC noted.
Last week, tropical storm Hermine slammed into far northeastern Mexico and then barreled into US territory, sparking flash floods on both sides of the border.
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