almost-major Otto making history

[srainhoutx]

Thanksgiving morning briefing from Jeff:

Extremely rare powerful hurricane to strike Costa Rica and Nicaragua shortly.

In 166 years of tropical cyclone records a hurricane has never struck the country of Costa Rica.

Satellite images and last USAF mission showed a rapidly intensifying hurricane and recent images show the formation of a well defined warm eye surrounded by deep bursting convection. The current intensity is set to 110mph making Otto a strong category 2 hurricane…and it is very possible that Otto will become a major hurricane before landfall. 12Z USAF pass through the eye indicated a central pressure down to 976mb and flight levels winds of 108kts.

A high pressure ridge over the Bahamas and Cuba has resulted in Otto to begin moving west to WNW over the last 24 hours and this motion will continue with an increase in forward speed. On this track Otto will landfall near the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border this afternoon. The system will weakening rapidly over the high mountains of central America where potentially devastating mudslides will result for significant rainfall. Otto is however now expected to remain a tropical cyclone and emerge into the eastern Pacific Ocean…in which case it will retain its Atlantic basin name.

Moisture from a decaying Otto over the eastern Pacific may be drawn northward over MX and into TX ahead of a strong storm system expected to cross the state late Monday into Tuesday.

[unome]

archive link: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2016/OTTO.shtml?

10:00 AM EST Thu Nov 24
Location: 11.0°N 83.4°W
Moving: W at 9 mph
Min pressure: 975 mb
Max sustained: 110 mph

https://twitter.com/EricBlake12/status/ ... 7117323264