Sam is now a strong Category 4 hurricane and the 2nd major storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Hurricane Sam will continue west towards the northern Lesser Antilles in the coming days. The central pressure in Sam’s eye is down to almost 940 mbar, as being judged by both the satellite analysis and also the NOAA hurricane hunters aircraft. The first few passes through the eye are showing extremely intense eyewall winds, with up to 140 knots (155-160 mph).This is a borderline to a Category 5. When a hurricane is relatively small as Sam currently is, the most intense winds are closer to the center.
The hurricane will produce larger swells that propagate far away from the cyclone’s center. High swells will generate large waves and rough surf conditions along the shores of the Leeward Islands facing east-southeast while the storm is still far away.After passing just to the north of the Lesser Antilles on Wednesday and Thursday, Sam is forecast to begin a gradual turn towards the north-northwest. But the exact track is still unknown as it depends on the turning point.
Later this coming week, Sam could be dangerously close to Bermuda.Eventually, hurricane Sam could turn toward the United States late this coming week, depending on how far south its track will bring in in the next few days.Statistically, the lower by latitude it goes, the more chances there as its trajectory will be more westerly than northerly direction, so it turns closer to the U.S. mainland. The majority of the models keep the hurricane at a powerful Category 4 intensity, while some potential is also there to strengthen close to a 5 or even weaken into a strong Category 3.
Credits: Windy, NOAA and Tomer Burg
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