ORLANDO, Fla. – Tropical storm Nana developed into a Hurricane on Wednesday.
Landfall is expected early Thursday.
The hurricane has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
Omar is still out there as a depression, but neither weather system will impact Florida.
Hurricane Nana continues to move west toward Belize at 16 mph. As of Wednesday afternoon, Nana was about 60 miles east southeast of Belize City with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph.
Nana was expected to become a hurricane before striking Belize before dawn Thursday and drenching a good part of Central America with dangerously heavy rainfall, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Omar, meanwhile, has been downgraded from a tropical storm to a depression. As of Wednesday afternoon, Omar had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph while spinning well off the coast of the Carolinas. At last check, Omar was moving east at 14 mph.
Meanwhile, showers and thunderstorms associated with an area of low pressure located about midway between the Windward Islands and west Africa have changed little in organization since Tuesday evening.
“Some development of this system is possible this week as it meanders over the eastern and central tropical Atlantic Ocean,” News 6 meteorologist Troy Bridges said.
The National Hurricane Center said it has a 30% chance of developing tropical characteristics over the next five days.
“Another tropical wave is expected to emerge off the coast of Africa later Wednesday and merge with a disturbance centered a couple hundred miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands in the next day or so,” Bridges said. “Some gradual development of this system is possible, with a 60% chance of development within the next five days.”
The next named storm will be called Paulette.
One of these will be Paulette! pic.twitter.com/IlS4LdAn4u
— Troy Bridges (@TroyNews6) September 2, 2020
Orlando-area forecast
It’s all about the heat in Central Florida.
“We will have a later start to the storms Wednesday afternoon, with a 40% coverage,” Bridges said. “That means we have more time to heat up.”
Orlando will reach a high of 96, with the heat index hitting 105 or greater. The average high on this date is 91. The record high is 98, set in 1918.
Highs will be in the mid-90s Thursday and Friday, too, before dipping back to the low 90s over the holiday Labor Day weekend.
There’s a full moon Wednesday called the corn moon. The official moment the moon was full was 1:22 a.m.