Hurricane Ophelia is still threatening Ireland

Sun Sentinel

Near the end of a long hurricane season that has included destructive blows from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, one more powerful storm has appeared on the horizon.

Surprisingly, however, Ophelia — the 10th hurricane of the Atlantic season — is not aiming for the hard-hit U.S. or the Caribbean,but rather for Ireland.

“In last 40 to 50 years, this is the first time we’ve seen a storm of this magnitude in this location in the northeast Atlantic,” said David Zelinsky, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

At 11 a.m. Sunday, Ophelia was 635 miles east of the Azores, off the coast of Portugal, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. The Category 1 hurricane was moving northeast at 38 mph. On Saturday, the Hurricane Center had described it as a Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 115 miles an hour.

Although forecasters expected the storm to lose its tropical characteristics and no longer be a hurricane when it strikes the island Monday, many in Ireland are bracing for what could be the worst storm since 1961, according to Met Éireann, the country’s national meteorological service.

Gale-force winds are expected to begin across southern Ireland by early Monday morning and gradually spread northward across the country during the day, forecasters said.