The Latest on Hurricane Earl

Carlos Fuller

In the final hours before Hurricane Earl makes landfall on Belize, here are three things to note according to in-house expert Carlos Fuller from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center.

Carlos Fuller, CCCCC

“I think we recognize three significant changes that have occurred between this morning and six this evening, but especially that occurred at six this evening, but especially which occurred at three o’clock this afternoon. That is the hurricane reconnaissance aircraft was finally able to measure hurricane force winds within the system so Earl is now a hurricane. We had expected it earlier, it finally happened because Earl finally moved far enough away from the Honduran coast that it could get energy from both the north, the south and the east. The second aspect was that the trajectory changed somewhat. Earlier we were looking at landfall in the Stann Creek district, closer to Dangriga. It shifted later on closer to Gales Point; now it is looking like more the Belize City or just north of the Belize City area so the emphasizes on where the core is going to land has shifted for the north. And the third thing and quite significant is the size of the system is much larger. We are now talking about a system that is a hundred of forty to a hundred and fifty miles wide in diameter with tropical storm force winds. So it means that a larger area of the country is going to feel the brunt of it. It is still a small core with hurricane force winds, but tropical storm force winds will most likely affect the entire country from Dangriga north to Corozal Town.”