MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Tropical storms Nana and Omar formed Tuesday as the Atlantic hurricane season nears its peak, meteorologists said, with Nana expected to turn into a hurricane and hit Central America.
Currently swirling in the Caribbean, Nana will pass near the coast of Honduras on Wednesday before intensifying and reaching Belize one day later, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
“Strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Nana could become a hurricane just prior to landfall on Thursday,” the NHC said in its latest advisory.
Nana was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (85 kilometers per hour) as it moved westward over the central Caribbean Sea some 425 miles from the town of Limon in Honduras, according to the NHC.
Tropical Storm Omar, meanwhile, formed off the northeastern coast of the United States but is expected to be short-lived and is moving away from land.
The two tropical storm are the 14th and 15th this year, with four having turned into hurricanes.
Laura, which evolved into a high-intensity hurricane, battered Louisiana and Texas last Thursday, killing at least 14 people.
The 2020 hurricane season, which runs from June to November, has been more active than average, with meteorologists forecasting between 19 and 25 tropical storms, of which seven to 11 will turn into hurricanes.
In typical years, only a couple of named storms would have formed by August, with an average season producing a total of 12 named storms.
As the peak of the season approaches on September 10, two other systems are currently under surveillance — one in the central Atlantic and one off the African coast — which could develop as they move westward.
© Agence France-Presse
