Hurricane Matthew Monday UPDATE
As of this morning Matthew has weakened, just slightly. With sustained winds of 130 mph and a slow movement north of 6 mph, Matthew is expected to gain forward speed today and track north. The center of Matthew will approach Jamaica and southwestern Haiti tonight, and eastern Cuba on Tuesday. Hurricane force winds are outwards up to 30 miles and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 195 miles.
Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion. Tropical storm conditions are expected along the southern coast of the Dominica Republic beginning today. Tropical storm conditions are expected to reach the southeastern Bahamas early Tuesday with Hurricane conditions expected late Tuesday.
Matthew will produce rainfall accumulations of 15-25 inches across Haiti and southwest portions of the Dominican Republic with maximum amounts close to 40 inches. Eastern Cuba and western Haiti look to get 8-12 inches, and across eastern Jamaica 5-10 inches is expected. Besides rainfall, the high storm surge will be dangerous and destructive.
Southern coast of Cuba will likely rise 7-11 feet. South Coast of Haiti will rise 7-10 feet. Jamaica will likely see a storm surge of 3 to 5 feet, while the southern coast of the Dominican Republic will rise 1-3 feet and the southeastern Bahamas close to 10-15 feet. There is a chance Matthew will track north, staying still off shore Florida, but possibly bringing a few inches of rain by weeks end to Florida and the Carolina’s coast. There is still much uncertainty with this. We’ll continue to updated more information as Matthew tracks through the Caribbean in the next 48 hours.
