TS Sara to Make Landfall South of Belize on Sunday Morning

As we mentioned, the latest forecast models show Tropical Storm Sara making landfall in southern Belize with winds up to sixty miles per hour. As of two PM today, the storm was located about a hundred miles southeast of Belize, moving west at a slow pace of two miles per hour. This sluggish movement has caused the heavy rainfall we’ve seen over the past twenty-four hours, and much more rain is expected over the next two days. Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon has more details for us.

 

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist

“Showing that it covers from southern Belize to almost the full north of the country. So, there is still some uncertainty as to where the system will track. But the most probable track which is at the center of the cone is that the system goes and makes landfall somewhere between Dangriga and Placencia based on this current forecast. So, for tomorrow morning, according to the GFS model, the low will remain where it is but we will continue to have bands coming across Belize. Then if I advance the frame twenty-four hours later, which is six a.m. on Sunday morning, you can see the low pressure now along the coast of Belize. One of our stations in the Cayes recorded about thirty-two to thirty-five knots, which is almost at the lower threshold of tropical storm force winds and that is why the country is currently under a tropical storm warning, because we expect to have possible gust and sustained winds of tropical storm force in the outer bands, associated with tropical storm Sara. Again indicating that early Sunday morning we could have potential landfall between Dangriga and Placencia with sixty-mile per hour winds. It will be moving west northwest at sixty miles per hour; therefore it should be crossing the country in about six hours or so, and by six in the evening the system is expected to be well to the west of us over Guatemala.”