Caribbean Islands brace for Hurricane Matthew impact
Hurricane Matthew is one of the most powerful hurricanes in almost 10 years, and islands in the Caribbean are bracing for impacts from it.
Matthew has defied the odds, as meteorologists warned late last week that Matthew has been strengthening at a remarkable rate. By Friday evening, the storm which was only forecasted to be a category 3 storm at it’s strongest, became the first category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean since Felix in 2007.
Fast-forward to today and Matthew has already broken more records. It now holds the record for the longest lived category 4-5 hurricane in the Eastern Caribbean.
The storm has weakened since then, but it is still a strong category 4 hurricane with maximum winds at 140 mph and gusts up to 165, which is category 5 winds. Due to it’s slow forward motion of less than 10 mph, heavy rain with the potential of catastrophic flooding is expected to occur in Jamaica and Haiti. This will be devastating for Haiti, as the country is still recovering from an earthquake that crippled the country in 2010.
Up to 25 inches of rain is expected across the hardest hit areas, with many islands in the Caribbean expected to feel the effects of Matthew. As the Caribbean is bracing itself for a landfall, which is likely to occur Tuesday morning on the western side of Haiti, many states along the US coastline are preparing for a potential landfall somewhere along the Atlantic Coastline. Model runs as early as Sunday afternoon had Matthew racing back out to sea, after a brief encounter with the US Coastline. This evening models are now showing a potential impact with states that lie along the Atlantic Seaboard, which has prompted Florida Governor Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency.
The shift westward in the models doesn’t come as a surprise, as the current set-up of the atmosphere supports it. Matthew is expected to pick up forward motion as early as Monday evening while continuing its jog north to the Bahamas as a weakened, yet still powerful hurricane. From there, Matthew is expected to shift westward as it draws closer to the Bermuda High. This will place Matthew over an area of extremely warm waters, which could help strengthen it once more, as it continues its jog towards the Atlantic Coastline.
During this journey, a cold front located over the Western US will eventually deflect Matthew back out to sea, but due to the uncertainty of the timing of the front, the track of Matthew remains uncertain beyond Wednesday.
Beyond Wednesday, the error of margin for the hurricane path extends beyond 175 miles. It’s for this reason meteorologists are stressing the importance of remaining aware and up to date, as Matthew continues to churn in the Caribbean as the strongest storm on earth.
