After weakening to a tropical storm earlier on Wednesday Hurricane Otto intensified as it approached the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.\u00a0 At 10:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Otto was located at latitude 11.2\u00b0N and longitude 82.2\u00b0W which put it about 120 miles east-southeast of Bluefields, Nicaragua.\u00a0 Otto was moving toward the west at 9 m.p.h. (15 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 85 m.p.h. (140 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 100 m.p.h. (160 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 981 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Limon, Costa Rica to Bluefields, Nicaragua.\u00a0 Hurricane Watches have been issued for the portions of the coast from Bluefields to Sandy Bay Sirpi, Nicaragua and from the Panama\/Costa Rica border to Limon, Costa Rica.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Warnings are in effect for the\u00a0 portions of the coast from Bluefields to Sandy Bay Sirpi, Nicaragua, from Puntarenas, Costa Rica to Puerto Sandino, Nicaragua and for San Andres Island.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Otto had meandered over the same water long enough to mix cooler water to the surface.\u00a0 The cooler water reduced the energy transfer to the atmosphere and the inner core of Otto weakened.\u00a0 The eye disappeared and Otto weakened below hurricane intensity.\u00a0 When Otto began to move west, the core of the circulation moved away from the cooler water.\u00a0 Thunderstorms developed rapidly near the center of circulation and the inner core began to redevelop.\u00a0 A reconnaissance plane found that the wind speed had increased above hurricane intensity again.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Otto has a very small circulation.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force only extend out about 12 miles (19 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extend out about 70 miles (110 km) from the center.\u00a0 The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) is 12.7.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) is 4.7 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) is 17.4.\u00a0 These indices indicated that Hurricane Otto is capable of causing localized minor wind damage.<\/p>\n
The small circulation of Hurricane Otto is more symmetrical.\u00a0\u00a0 There are indications that a circular eye and eyewall could be reforming at the center of the hurricane.\u00a0 Several bands of thunderstorms are rotating around the core of Otto.\u00a0 Thunderstorms at the core were generating upper level divergence which pumped out mass and allowed the surface pressure to decrease on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Otto will be moving through an environment that is favorable for intensification until it makes landfall.\u00a0 Otto will be moving over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 An upper level ridge east of the hurricane is producing southeasterly winds which are flowing near the top of the circulation.\u00a0 However, those winds are weaker than they were yesterday and the vertical wind shear is less.\u00a0 Hurricane Otto could strengthen further during the next few hours.<\/p>\n
A ridge to the north of Otto is steering the hurricane toward the west and that general motion is expected to continue for another day or two.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Hurricane Otto will make a landfall on the coast between the Nicaragua\/Costa Rica border and Monkey Point, Nicaragua.\u00a0 Winds blowing toward the coast will produce a storm surge along the southern coast of Nicaragua.\u00a0 Otto could drop heavy rain over Nicaragua and Costa Rica.\u00a0 Outer bands may also produce locally heavy rain over parts of Honduras and El Salvador.\u00a0 The rain may be heavy enough to cause flooding and mudslides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After weakening to a tropical storm earlier on Wednesday Hurricane Otto intensified as it approached the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.\u00a0 At 10:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Otto was located at latitude 11.2\u00b0N and longitude 82.2\u00b0W which put it about 120 miles east-southeast of Bluefields, Nicaragua.\u00a0 Otto was moving toward […]<\/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":[576,577,573,579,449,580,571,570],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3422"}],"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=3422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3423,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3422\/revisions\/3423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}