Hurricane Ernesto intensified to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale on Thursday evening.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Hurricane Ernesto was located at latitude 27.1\u00b0N and longitude 68.1\u00b0W which put the center about 410 miles (660 km) south-southwest of Bermuda.\u00a0 Ernesto was moving toward the north-northeast at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 100 m.p.h. (160 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 120 m.p.h. (195 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 968 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Warning was in effect for Bermuda.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft found that Hurricane Ernesto has strengthened to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale on Thursday evening.\u00a0 A circular eye with a diameter of 45 miles (75 km) was present at the center of Ernesto’s circulation.\u00a0 The eye was surrounded by a broken ring of thunderstorms and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of Ernesto’s circulation.\u00a0 Storms near the center generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the hurricane.\u00a0 The removal of mass caused the pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n The size of the circulation around Hurricane Ernesto increased on Thursday.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extended out 60 miles (95 km) from the center of Ernesto’s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 260 miles (420 km) from the center of Hurricane Ernesto.<\/p>\n The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) was 16.5.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 16.7 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 33.2.\u00a0 Hurricane Ernesto was similar in intensity to Hurricane Idalia when Idalia hit Florida in 2023.\u00a0 Ernesto is larger than Idalia was.<\/p>\n Hurricane Ernesto will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Ernesto will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move through a region where the upper level winds are weak and there will be little vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Hurricane Ernesto is likely to continue to intensify during the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n Hurricane Ernesto will move around the western side of a subtropical high pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Ernesto toward the north during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Hurricane Ernesto will approach Bermuda on Friday night.\u00a0 The center of Ernesto will be near Bermuda on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n Hurricane Ernesto will bring strong winds and heavy rain to Bermuda.\u00a0 The strong winds will be capable of causing serious damage.\u00a0 Heavy rain could cause flash floods.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hurricane Ernesto intensified to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale on Thursday evening.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Hurricane Ernesto was located at latitude 27.1\u00b0N and longitude 68.1\u00b0W which put the center about 410 miles (660 km) south-southwest of Bermuda.\u00a0 Ernesto was moving toward the north-northeast at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[446,447,31,1154,3682,650],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20858,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20857\/revisions\/20858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}