Hurricane Oscar unexpectedly formed in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, posing a threat for strong winds and heavy rain to some of the region’s islands over the next couple of days.
The rapidly intensifying storm defied expectations this weekend; it jumped from tropical storm to hurricane strength in just a couple of hours. Oscar formed less than 24 hours after Nadine developed and made landfall in the western Caribbean Sea.
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Forecasters tracking a disturbance north of the Greater Antilles found that the system rapidly organized into the season’s 15th named storm on Saturday morning.
A crew of Hurricane Hunters flying into the storm early Saturday afternoon discovered that Oscar had quickly strengthened into a hurricane with maximum, sustained winds of 130 km/h, which is its current wind speeds still as of Sunday morning.
Oscar is a grouchy, but exceptionally tiny storm. Hurricane-force winds only extend 10 km from the centre of the system. It’s important to note that small hurricanes are volatile and their intensity can suddenly fluctuate with little or no notice.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects that Oscar could strengthen a little more over the next day or two as it moves west toward eastern Cuba, where it could make landfall sometime on Sunday afternoon before turning northeast, at a quicker pace, toward the central Bahamas on Tuesday.
“Oscar is expected to reach the northeastern coast of Cuba as a hurricane later this afternoon. Weakening is expected after landfall, but Oscar could still be a tropical storm when it moves north of Cuba late Monday and moves across the central Bahamas on Tuesday,” NHC said.
Hurricane warnings are now in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as the southeastern Bahamas and portions of eastern Cuba.
Rainfall amounts of 125 mm to 250 mm, with isolated amounts of 375 mm, are expected across eastern Cuba, with 50 mm to 100 mm, and isolated amounts of 150 mm, expected in southeastern Bahamas through Tuesday.
As of now, the storm poses no threat to the United States or Canada in the next five days.
Header image courtesy of NOAA.
Stay with The Weather Network for the latest updates throughout hurricane season.