Nana may hit Belize at tropical storm strength

Omar downgraded to a depression

Tropical Storm Nana is running out of time to strengthen into a hurricane before landfall and may hit Belize as a tropical storm overnight, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Wind shear limited its intensity, but any strong convective burst could push it into a Category 1 hurricane, forecasters said in the latest discussion.

“Since the bursts have been frequent today the intensity forecast calls for Nana to strengthen to near hurricane strength at landfall,” the discussion said. After landfall, forecasters expect the storm to steadily weaken.

At 8 p.m., the center of the storm was passing just north of the Bay Islands of Honduras. The forecast track said the center of Nana should make landfall on the coast of Belize overnight.

Nana, the season’s 14th tropical storm, formed Tuesday about 120 miles south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica. If it becomes a hurricane, it would be the fifth of the busy 2020 Atlantic season.

As of 8 p.m., Nana was about 50 miles north-northwest of Isla Roatan, Honduras, and about 100 miles east-southeast of Belize City, moving west at 15 mph with top winds of 60. A Category 1 hurricane forms when sustained winds are in the range of 74 to 95 mph.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from Nana’s center, according to the advisory.

The entire coast of Belize is under a hurricane warning and a hurricane watch. Coastal Guatemala is under a tropical storm watch, and Honduras and the southern Yucatan Peninsula are under a tropical storm warning.

There have been four hurricanes so far this season: Hanna, Isais, Laura and Marco.

Laura was the season’s first major hurricane, making landfall in Cameron, La., as a Category 4 on Aug. 27. Hanna, Isias and Marco were Category 1 hurricanes that made landfall in Padre Island, Texas; Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.; and at the mouth of the Mississippi River, respectively.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Omar was downgraded to a tropical depression after encountering storm-weakening, upperlevel winds over the open Atlantic.

Omar, the season’s 15th tropical storm, formed about 225 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C., on Tuesday, about five hours after Nana, according to the NHC.

What was left over Omar was about 265 miles north of Bermuda, the NHC said Wednesday in its 5 p.m. advisory. It was moving east at 14 mph, with 35 mph winds and higher gusts. It is expected to become a remnant low by Thursday night, the NHC said in its outlook.

The system is expected to continue its curve away from land, moving in a northeast to eastward motion off the U.S. East Coast.

An area of the Atlantic midway between the Windward Islands and the west coast of Africa is bustling with activity from two tropical waves. One is an area of low pressure with showers and thunderstorms that is slowly becoming better organized, the hurricane center said.

The other moved off the coast of Africa on Wednesday. It is expected to merge with a disturbance a couple hundred miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands, the hurricane center said. If and when the disturbances merge, the system will develop and could become a tropical depression over the weekend as it moves slowly westward over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.

This is the time of year when storms tend to form in the open Atlantic, particularly near the Cabo Verde Islands. Those storms, which grow in size and intensity as they make the long trek westward across the Atlantic Ocean, are historically the most powerful and destructive hurricanes.

The remaining monikers for named storms this season in the Atlantic are: Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred.

In August, the federal government issued an updated forecast for the season, predicting as many as 25 storms, which is more than the agency has ever forecast. The tropical weather experts at Colorado State University predicted that 2020 could possibly be the secondbusiest season on record, behind only 2005, the year that produced Katrina and Wilma.

“Since the bursts have been frequent today the intensity forecast calls for Nana to strengthen to near hurricane strength at landfall.” Forecasters said in the latest discussion.