Yesterday, Sunday at 5:00 pm, tropical storm MARIA turned into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (winds from 119 to 153 km/h).

On Monday morning at 5:00 am, Hurricane Maria Center was located near near latitude 14.6 North, longitude 59.5 West 160 km east of Martinique, and 1,040 km south-east of the eastern tip of the island of Hispaniola.

Maria is moving toward the west-northwest near 13 mph (20 km/h), and this motion with a decrease in forward speed is expected through Tuesday night.

On the forecast track, the center of Maria will move across the Leeward Islands late today and tonight and then over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea Tuesday and Tuesday night.

Unless changed, MARIA is expected to pass to the north of Haiti on Thursday and Friday and to affect the departments of the Great North by its heavy rains and winds. Note that the trajectory of MARIA is relatively similar to that of Hurricane IRMA

Actually, maximum sustained winds are near 90 mph (150 km/h) with higher gusts. Significant strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Maria is expected to become a dangerous major hurricane before it moves through the Leeward Islands.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles (165 km).

SL/ HaitiLibre