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Sunday, February 16, 2025

Dangerous Irma bearing down on Leeward Islands

by

2720 days ago
20170906

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos— A po­ten­tial­ly cat­a­stroph­ic Cat­e­go­ry 5 Hur­ri­cane Ir­ma is bear­ing down on the Lee­ward Is­lands with max­i­mum sus­tained winds that have now reached 180 miles per hour, and it will move dan­ger­ous­ly near or over por­tions of the is­land chain.

At 11 am yes­ter­day, Ir­ma was about 225 miles east of An­tigua and 230 miles east south­east of Bar­bu­da, and mov­ing to­wards the west at 14 miles per hour.

That gen­er­al mo­tion is ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue, fol­lowed by a turn to­ward the west north­west tonight. Fore­cast­ers say any de­lay in that shift could see Ir­ma mov­ing di­rect­ly over the Lee­ward Is­lands as the strongest to hit the area since Lenny in 1999.

“On the fore­cast track, the ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous core of Ir­ma is fore­cast to move over por­tions of the north­ern Lee­ward Is­lands tonight and ear­ly Wednes­day…Ir­ma is a an ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous cat­e­go­ry 5 hur­ri­cane on the Saf­fir-Simp­son Hur­ri­cane Wind Scale. Some fluc­tu­a­tions in in­ten­si­ty are like­ly dur­ing the next day or two, but Ir­ma is fore­cast to re­main a pow­er­ful cat­e­go­ry 4 or 5 hur­ri­cane dur­ing the next cou­ple of days,” the Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­tre (NHC) in Mi­a­mi said.

De­struc­tive winds, ca­pa­ble of wide­spread tree dam­age, pow­er out­ages, and struc­tur­al dam­age can be ex­pect­ed. Storm-surge flood­ing, high surf and rip cur­rents will al­so be dan­gers, and heavy rain could con­tribute to flood­ing and mud­slides, as well.

Based on wind speed, Ir­ma is the strongest At­lantic hur­ri­cane since Wilma in 2005 which had max­i­mum sus­tained winds of 185 miles per hour. And, ac­cord­ing to hur­ri­cane ex­pert Dr. Phil Klotzbach from Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty, it is on­ly the 17th At­lantic hur­ri­cane to have max­i­mum sus­tained winds of 175 miles per hour or greater.

Hur­ri­cane-force winds ex­tend out­ward up to 60 miles from Ir­ma’s cen­tre, and trop­i­cal-storm-force winds ex­tend out­ward up to 160 miles.

Tim­ing for Po­ten­tial Im­pact of Hur­ri­cane Ir­ma

° Lee­ward Is­lands: Late Tues­day-Wednes­day

° Puer­to Ri­co/Vir­gin Is­lands: Wednes­day- ear­ly Thurs­day

° Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic/Haiti: Thurs­day- ear­ly Fri­day

° Turks and Caicos: Late Thurs­day-Fri­day

° Ba­hamas: Fri­day-this week­end

° Cu­ba: Fri­day-this week­end

New hur­ri­cane watch­es have been is­sued for the Turks and Caicos Is­lands and the south­east­ern Ba­hamas, in­clud­ing the Ack­lins, Crooked Is­land, Long Cay, the In­aguas, Mayagua­na, and the Ragged Is­lands; as well as the north coast of Haiti from the bor­der of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic west­ward to Le Mole St. Nicholas. A trop­i­cal storm watch has al­so been is­sued from south of Le Mole St. Nicholas to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.


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