Hurricane Rafael hit western Cuba late on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Rafael was located at latitude 22.6\u00b0N and longitude 82.7\u00b0W which put the center about 45 miles (75 km) south-southwest of Havana, Cuba. \u00a0 Rafael was moving toward the northwest at 13 m.p.h. (20 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 115 m.p.h. (185 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 140 m.p.h. (220 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 950 mb.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0 Hurricane Warning is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Habana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, and the Isle of Youth.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Villa Clara, and Cienfuegos.\u00a0 <\/strong>A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Florida Keys from Key West to Channel 5 Bridge.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Dry Tortugas.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Hurricane Rafael intensified to a major hurricane on Wednesday before it hit western Cuba.\u00a0 Concentric eyewalls formed in the core of Rafael’s circulation.\u00a0 An eyewall replacement cycle started, but the inner eyewall was still intact when Hurricane Rafael hit western Cuba.\u00a0 Since the inner eyewall was still intact, Rafael did not weaken before it hit Cuba.<\/p>\n Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the concentric eyewalls.\u00a0 Storms near the core of Rafael generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the hurricane.\u00a0 The removal of mass caused the surface pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n The circulation around Hurricane Rafael was small.\u00a0 Wind to hurricane force extended out 30 miles (50 km) from the center of Rafael\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 115 miles (185 km) in the eastern side of Hurricane Rafael.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 60 miles (95 km) in the western side of Rafael.<\/p>\n The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Rafael was 20.6.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 8.8 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 29.4.\u00a0 Hurricane Rafael was similar in intensity to Hurricane Delta when Delta hit Louisiana in 2020.\u00a0 Rafael was not as big as Delta was.<\/p>\n Hurricane Rafael will move around the southwestern part of a high pressure system over the western Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Rafael toward the west-northwest during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, the center of Hurricane Rafael will move across western Cuba during the next few few hours.\u00a0 Rafael will move over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.<\/p>\n Hurricane Rafael will bring strong winds and heavy rain to western Cuba.\u00a0 Strong winds could cause widespread electricity outages in Cuba.\u00a0 Heavy rain will cause flash floods in some locations.\u00a0 Rafael could cause a storm surge of up to 10 feet (3 meters) along the south coast of western Cuba.\u00a0 Hurricane Rafael will be capable of causing localized major damage.<\/p>\n Hurricane Rafael will weaken as it moves across western Cuba.\u00a0 Rafael will move into an environment somewhat favorable for intensification after it moves north of Cuba.\u00a0 Rafael will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the eastern periphery of a large upper level trough that extends from the North Central U.S. to the Southwest U.S.\u00a0 The upper level trough will produce southwesterly winds that will blow toward the top of Rafael’s circulation.\u00a0 Those winds will cause the vertical wind shear to increase but the wind shear may not be enough to prevent intensification.\u00a0 Hurricane Rafael will could intensify on Thursday after it moves north of Cuba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hurricane Rafael hit western Cuba late on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Rafael was located at latitude 22.6\u00b0N and longitude 82.7\u00b0W which put the center about 45 miles (75 km) south-southwest of Havana, Cuba. \u00a0 Rafael was moving toward the northwest at 13 m.p.h. (20 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum […]<\/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":[865,866,3066,3662,2548,145,3247,51,50,867,3798,650,2630,873,3067,3069,3068,3073,3797,2599],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21553"}],"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=21553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21554,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21553\/revisions\/21554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}