The National Hurricane Center was monitoring Hurricane Oscar in the western Caribbean Sea and Tropical Depression Nadine over Central America on Sunday.
Hurricane Oscar quickly strengthened yesterday afternoon after becoming a tropical storm near the Turks and Caicos Islands earlier that morning.
As of the NHC advisory at 8 a.m., Oscar was a compact but powerful Category 1 hurricane located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of Great Inagua Island and 115 mph (185 km/h) east-southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba, moving west-southwest with a speed of 20 km/h with maximum sustained winds of 130 degrees. km/hour and higher wind gusts. Gradual weakening is expected to begin tonight and Monday.
Continued west-southwestward motion with reduced forward speed is expected this evening, followed by a turn to the northwest and north on Monday and Tuesday. On the prediction track, the center of Oscar
will move away from Greater Inagua later this morning before making landfall along Cuba’s northeastern coast later this afternoon or evening. The system is then expected to move through eastern Cuba
tonight and Monday. Oscar will then accelerate in a northeasterly direction
the central Bahamas on Tuesday.
A hurricane warning was issued for the southern Bahamas and the northern coast from the Cuban provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo to Punta Maisi.
Oscar is a very small hurricane, NHC said, with hurricane-force winds extending only up to 5 miles (8 km) from the center and tropical storm force winds extending up to 45 miles (70 km) outward.
Oscar is not expected to pose an immediate threat to the United States.
Meanwhile, Nadine made landfall near Belize City around noon on Saturday as a tropical storm, but weakened to a depression by the evening as it passed over northern Guatemala.
As of the 8 a.m. advisory, the depression was 85 miles east of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, moving west-southwest at 15 mph with maximum sustained winds of 31 mph. Continued west-to-west-southwest movement is expected this morning.
On the predicted route, Nadine will pass through parts of southern Mexico this morning. NHC said continued weakening is expected and Nadine is expected to disappear on Sunday.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has produced fourteen named storms to date, including nine hurricanes. Three of them hit Florida. It has now also had two potential tropical cyclones, the first of which did not develop before making landfall in September but is the reason the NHC is up to 15 in its naming scheme, despite 14 named storms.
The hurricane season runs until November 30.
