Nadine is likely to bring foul weather to some popular tourist destinations through this weekend after making landfall in Belize on Saturday.
The newly minted tropical storm made landfall along the coast of Belize around noon EDT, with satellite and radar images indicating the eye of the storm came ashore near Belize City. The maximum, sustained winds are near 95 km/h, based on data from the Air Force Hurricane Hunters and surface observations.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) says Nadine has maximum, sustained winds of near 95 km/h with higher gusts. Weakening is forecast to begin this afternoon, and the system is likely to dissipate over southeastern Mexico by early Sunday.
Fortunately, the sprawling system won’t have much time to organize itself before it makes landfall in Belize by Saturday afternoon. This would be the first named storm to hit Belize since Hurricane Lisa in November 2022.
Tropical-storm-conditions are expected across Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula through Saturday afternoon.
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Regardless of the system’s development, flooding rains are the greatest hazard as it pushes inland over the next couple of days.
Widespread rainfall totals of 100-200 mm are expected throughout northern Belize, portions of southern Mexico, and northern sections of Guatemala. The system’s rains will extend far inland from the point of landfall, with flooding likely toward the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca.
The NHC notes that some areas in southern Mexico could see as much as 300 mm of rain from this system. This region is highly susceptible to flash flooding and landslides, especially around hilly and mountainous terrain.
Elsewhere, forecasters are watching a disturbance northeast of the Caribbean with a high (90 per cent) chance of development in the next 48 hours. If it becomes a named storm, it will be given the Oscar moniker. Other than that additional disturbance, conditions remain relatively quiet across the rest of the Atlantic basin, and there are no tropical threats to the U.S. or Canada in the next week.
Header image courtesy of NOAA.
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