As the Gulf Coast go forward to cope with theaftermath of Harvey , a unexampled terror has come out in the east Atlantic . Dubbed Irma , this latest storm erupted into a Category 3 hurricane yesterday afternoon — and it ’s still gaining steam .
Irma is now the quaternary hurricane in what is turning out to be an dynamic Atlantic storm season . It was listed as a tropical storm on Wednesday sunup , and in a appendage known as “ rapid intensification , ” it quickly grew into a highly organise Category 3 hurricane by Thursday afternoon . Irma currently features 115 mile per hour winds ( 185 kilometre / h ) , and it ’s moving westwards toward the Caribbean at about 12 mph ( 19 klick / h ) .
GOES East captured this infrared loop of Hurricane#Irma , now about 840 mi . west northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands . Info @https://t.co/2NU0HTOsyUpic.twitter.com / Xsv6arSk5u
— NOAA Satellites ( @NOAASatellites)September 1 , 2017
“ Fluctuations in strength , up or down , are potential during the next few days , but Irma is expected to stay a muscular hurricane through the weekend , ” notes NOAA ’s National Hurricane Center in itspublic advisory .
The violent storm is expected to gain effectiveness over the next five days , and will in all probability escalate into a Category 4 hurricane . Irma could reach out the Caribbean by Tuesday afternoon , and linger into the next week . Preliminary trajectories show the storm careening towards the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico . A gamy force per unit area ridge to the North is steering the storm westwards from its current position in the east Atlantic .
Irma is what meteorologist call a classic “ Cape Verde hurricane , ” where a tropic storm shape in the far easterly Atlantic near the Cabo Verde Islands and tracks in a deliberate westward direction . Some of the big and most powerful hurricanes started off in this manner , includingHugo(1989),Floyd(1999 ) , andIvan(2004 ) .
Irma def not a Pisces the Fishes storm . CFAN ’s calibrated ECMWF tracks more westwards than raw ECMWF . > 90 % major hurricanepic.twitter.com/AY7PRxvLoV
— CFAN Wx / Climate ( @cfanclimate)August 31 , 2017
Because it ’s still so early , it ’s difficult to project Irma ’s ultimate trajectory . The storm could slip back out to ocean , threatening no one , or it could make multiple landfalls in the Caribbean . It could also veer towards the US coastline ( as per the model result shown in the above tweet ) .
Regardless of where Irma survive , it ’s still a harbinger of possible things to fare . The Atlantic hurricane time of year does n’t come to an prescribed end until November 30 .
[ NOAA , CNN , Weather Underground ]
Hurricane IrmaScience
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