AREQUIPA, Peru – The National Civil Defense General Staff decreed the cyclonic alert phase from Las Tunas to the province of Guantánamo due to the approach of Hurricane Oscar to that eastern area of the Island.
This was reported by the official Lázaro reporter Manuel Alonso on your Facebook profile. For its part, the Cuban Meteorological Institute also issued a notice about the potential danger of this system for the country.
According to the entity, during the early hours of this Sunday Hurricane Oscar had slight fluctuations in its intensity. Its maximum sustained winds are 130 kilometers per hour, with higher gusts, so it continues to be a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
“Its minimum pressure is 988 hectopascal and it has moved on a course close to the west, with a speed of 19 kilometers per hour,” the note states.
At 6:00 AM the center of the hurricane was estimated at 21.0 degrees North latitude and 73.2 degrees West longitude, a position that places it over the island of Great Inagua in the eastern Bahamas, 130 kilometers east. northeast from Punta de Maisíthe easternmost tip of Cuba and 240 kilometers east of Punta Lucrecia, Holguín.
The forecast indicates that in the next 12 hours this hurricane will continue on a course between the west and west-southwest, possibly gaining a little more in intensity. This system will transit on October 20 over the seas north of the eastern region, approaching the northern coast of the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín in the afternoon, when it will begin to gradually decrease its speed.
The current trajectory and its movement between the west and west-southwest indicate that Hurricane Oscar could be making landfall in Cuba during the afternoon-night of this Sunday, along the northern coast in the vicinity of the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín.
Weather conditions will begin to deteriorate in the eastern region from the morning, where the areas of showers, rains and thunderstorms will gradually increase, which can be strong and locally intense in some locations in eastern Cuba and in the mountainous areas.
The strength of the winds will gradually increase in the eastern provinces, which in the afternoon and evening will reach speeds between 85 and 100 kilometers per hour, with higher gusts.
Oscar’s winds could reach hurricane force in the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín, right in the area where the hurricane will be making landfall in Cuban territory. On the northern eastern coast, strong swells will begin at noon today, mainly to the north of the provinces of Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas, as well as moderate coastal flooding in low areas of this coastline, including the Baracoa seawall.
“The greatest attention must be paid in the eastern provinces to the evolution and future trajectory of Hurricane Oscar,” the notice highlights.
