The National Hurricane Center named former Tropical Depression 16 as Tropical Storm Otto on Monday afternoon based on data from satellites.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST the center of Tropical Storm Otto was located at latitude 11.3\u00b0N and longitude 79.2\u00b0W which put it about 315 miles (505 km) east of Bluefields, Nicaragua.\u00a0 Otto was stationary.\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 1000 mb.<\/p>\n
The structure of Tropical Storm Otto has not changed appreciably during today.\u00a0 Most of the thunderstorms are occurring in bands north and west of the center of circulation.\u00a0 There are fewer thunderstorms in the southeastern quadrant of the circulation.\u00a0 Otto is a small tropical storm.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force only extend out about 35 miles (55 km) from the center.\u00a0 Thunderstorms are generating upper level divergence which is pumping mass out north and west of the tropical storm.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Otto will move through an environment that will be favorable for intensification.\u00a0 It will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature will be near 29\u00b0C unless Otto moves so slowly that its own circulation mixes cooler water to the surface.\u00a0 Southerly winds in the upper levels are generating moderate vertical wind shear, but those winds are expected to weaken.\u00a0 When the vertical shear diminishes, Tropical Storm Otto will be likely to intensify and it could become a hurricane.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Otto is currently in a region where the steering currents are weak.\u00a0 However, a ridge of high pressure is forecast to build north of Otto, and the ridge is likely to steer the tropical storm toward the west.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Tropical Storm Otto could approach the coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica in 48 to 72 hours.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Otto could be a hurricane by the time it reaches the coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.\u00a0 Otto will be capable of bringing gusty winds and heavy rain to portions of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, northern Panama, Honduras, El Salvador and southern Guatemala.\u00a0 The locally heavy rain could produce flash floods and mudslides in areas of steep terrain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Hurricane Center named former Tropical Depression 16 as Tropical Storm Otto on Monday afternoon based on data from satellites.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST the center of Tropical Storm Otto was located at latitude 11.3\u00b0N and longitude 79.2\u00b0W which put it about 315 miles (505 km) east of Bluefields, Nicaragua.\u00a0 Otto was stationary.\u00a0 The […]<\/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":[576,577,573,579,450,449,571,570,578],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403"}],"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=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3404,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions\/3404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}