It didn’t take long for Tropical Storm Katia to become Hurricane Katia.
Just west of the Yucatán Peninsula, Katia is a Category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center‘s 4 a.m. report today.
Just hours after being named a tropical storm, the southwest Gulf of Mexico storm known as Katia was upgraded to a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“Little overall motion is anticipated through late Thursday, but then the hurricane is forecast to turn south-westward and be approaching the coast within the watch area late Friday or early Saturday,” reports the NHC.
Katia is one of three hurricanes now swirling on either side of the Peninsula, with Category 5 Irma and José, which was also was designated a hurricane about 4 p.m. Wednesday. None of them pose a direct threat to the Yucatán, with Irma and José tracking well northeast of the Peninsula.
Katia, which is the 11th storm to be named this hurricane season, is expected to produce five to 10 inches of rainfall over northern Veracruz and two to five inches over southern Veracruz, southern Tamaulipas and northeast Puebla through early Saturday.
Irma, meanwhile, has blasted a deadly path through the Caribbean on its way toward the southern tip of Florida. As of 7 a.m. ET, Irma was classified as at Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 180 mph. As of Thursday morning, the hurricane had claimed 10 lives.
And José, a Category 1 hurricane, is still lurking in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles west of the Caribbean. It appears to be following a similar trajectory to Irma’s.
Source: NOLA
