Tropical Storm Julia Barrels West Towards Nicaragua

Brace yourself for the effects of Tropical Storm Julia. The weather system is expected to make landfall in Nicaragua on Sunday morning, as a category one hurricane. TS 13 is barrelling along a westward trajectory at sustained winds of forty miles per hour and moving at a speed of eighteen miles per hour. Rapid weakening is expected after landfall with the system becoming a remnant low by Sunday night into Monday morning.  Ahead of the weekend, the media got an update from Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon on the approaching weather.

Ronald Gordon

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist

“The forecast is for Julia to continue on a westward track and to make landfall on Nicaragua early on Sunday morning as a category one hurricane. On that note, the system after making landfall will move farther inland into Nicaragua and Honduras and dissipate over those mountainous terrains. The remnants of Julia will continue moving westward and the outer bands will move across Belize producing torrential rainfall into the weekend. We are already experiencing moisture from a north-easterly airflow ahead of this system which of course will cause ourselves to become more saturated and then with the rainfall that we expect from the system as the remnants move over us will basically cause the flooding situation to be worse. The main threat from this system will be rainfall and the potential flooding. Those will also include flash flooding over areas of the south and possible landslides. In terms of winds, on Saturday night into Sunday, we are expecting winds of about fifteen to twenty-five knots to higher gusts near showers and thunderstorms. Those could be significant hazard for mariners, especially those operating small vessels. So we are likely to issue a warning for mariners during those days. But apart from that, we are not expecting tropical storm force winds sustained across the country.”