The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued this Wednesday a hurricane and tropical storm watch for areas of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, due to the advance of a potential cyclone through the Caribbean.
The system is located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Curaçao and about 180 miles (285 kilometers) east of the tip of Colombia’s La Guajira peninsula, the NHC said in the most recent bulletin.
It has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 km/h) and is moving rapidly to the west with a forward speed of 21 mph (33 km/h).
The Government of Nicaragua has issued a hurricane watch for the Caribbean coast up to the border with Costa Rica, and this second country a tropical storm watch.
According to a probable trajectory pattern, the system will pass near the southern Caribbean and the northern coast of Venezuela tonight, and early Thursday through La Guajira to reach the southwestern Caribbean on Thursday afternoon and Friday.
Related news: Nicaraguan Army sends soldiers to the Caribbean due to tropical cyclone alert
“On Friday afternoon it will move over parts of Nicaragua and is expected to become a tropical storm as it moves west through the southern Caribbean,” said Miami-based NHC meteorologists.
The potential tropical cyclone will produce heavy rains over parts of northern Venezuela and northeastern Colombia through Thursday morning, and then over Nicaragua and Costa Rica on Friday.
Nicaragua suspends sailings
The Nicaraguan Army, through the Naval Force, suspended this Wednesday the sailings in the 11 most important ports of the country, due to the threat posed by the atmospheric disturbance called “Dos” in the Caribbean Sea basin, which could become a tropical cyclone in the next few days.
The Nicaraguan Armed Forces reported that “they will not issue departures to vessels destined for the open sea, fishing banks, coastal communities, islands or adjacent keys, until further notice.”
The sailings were suspended indefinitely for the ports of Bluefields, Corn Island, El Bluff and Puerto Cabezas, located on the Caribbean coast (east), as well as the maritime terminals Corinto, Potosí, Puerto Sandino and San Juan del Sur, in the Pacific (west-southwest), plus those found in the Great Lake of Nicaragua: Granada, Moyogalpa and San Carlos.
