Nana strikes Belize as hurricane with damaging winds, flooding rainfall
By
Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Published Sep 2, 2020 2:16 PM EST
Omar is alive in the Atlantic. The last time Omar was a storm, it took an unusual path in the Caribbean. Find out more on the history of O-named storms.
On Thursday evening, Nana dissipated inland over southwestern Guatemala after striking Central America late Wednesday as the fifth hurricane of the 2020 season.
Nana maintained Category 1 hurricane status with 75-mph winds as it made landfall around 2 a.m. early Thursday on the coast of Belize, a country located just to the south of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in Central America.
As Nana moved farther inland, it began to lose wind intensity and it dropped back to a tropical storm. By 10 a.m. Thursday, maximum sustained winds had fallen to 45 mph, and the storm was about 125 miles north of Guatemala City, Guatemala. As of 4 p.m. CDT Thursday, the storm weakened into a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. At 10 p.m. CDT Thursday, the National Hurricane Center issued the last advisory on Nana, as its circulation had dissipated over the mountainous terrain of southern Guatemala.
About 4,000 residents in southern Belize moved to shelters ahead of the storm, The Associated Press reported. Belize officials did not immediately report any injuries, The AP said.
Around 11 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Nana was located about 60 miles southeast of Belize City, Belize, and was moving to the west at a brisk at 16 mph. The system quickly strengthened from a tropical storm packing 60-mph winds as of 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday to a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph just three hours later.
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As the storm weakened, hurricane warnings were discontinued for the coast of Belize from Belize City southward to the Belize-Guatemala border, the National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane watch was also lifted for the coast of Belize from north of Belize City to the Belize-Mexico border.
By Thursday morning, all coastal watches and warnings throughout the region had been discontinued.
Nana is the first hurricane to make landfall in Belize since Earl in 2016, said Colorado State University Meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.
Building seas, torrential downpours and gusty thunderstorms preceded Nana into early Thursday over portions of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, southeastern Mexico and Nicaragua. Small craft should remain in port in this region, and bathers should avoid the surf due to increasing rip currents.
On Wednesday, up to at least 7.56 inches of rain fell over Roatan Island, Honduras, and at least 2.87 inches had fallen over Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, as of Thursday morning.
This image, captured on Wednesday midday, September 2, 2020, shows Nana over the Gulf of Honduras, over the northwestern part of the Caribbean Sea. Thunderstorms were focusing strongly near the center of the storm, despite some northerly wind shear present. (NOAA/GOES-East)
As Nana continues to push inland over Central America, rain and wind will gradually decrease as the storm unwinds during Friday.
A general 1-4 inches of rain is forecast from northern and western Honduras to northern El Salvador, southeastern Mexico and much of Belize and Guatemala.
"The heaviest rain with an AccuWeather StormMax™ of 8 inches is likely in the mountains of Guatemala and southernmost Mexico," Kottlowski said.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said that flash flooding and mudslides would be the greatest risks to lives and property in the region.
AccuWeather meteorologists believe Nana will rate a 1 on the RealImpact™ Scale in Central America due primarily to the storm's small size, but also the flooding and mudslide potential. This scale was introduced by AccuWeather in 2019 to better relay the full impact of hurricanes and tropical storms. Unlike the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is based solely on wind speeds, the RealImpact™ Scale factors in other key weather elements.
There is a remote chance the circulation from Nana survives the trip over the rugged mountains of Central America and reaches the Pacific Ocean.
Should this occur and the system strengthens over the warm waters of the Pacific, it would be assigned a new name based on the list of Eastern Pacific tropical storms.
"While there is a small chance that Nana survives and reaches the Pacific, we feel it is much more likely for the storm to break up over the mountains, due to its small size," Kottlowski said.
The most recent storm to cross from the Atlantic into the East Pacific was Hurricane Otto in 2016. Forecasters say it's much more common for storms to cross from the Atlantic into the East Pacific than the other way around due to prevailing steering winds out of the east and thus weaker wind shear over the region. However, earlier this season, Cristobal became one rare crossover storm when it developed from what was left of the former Tropical Storm Amanda, the first named system of the 2020 East Pacific season. Cristobal became the earliest "C" named storm on record for the Atlantic season when it developed on June 2.
Nana continued the streak of record-setting early tropical storm formations in 2020. Every storm from Edouard through Nana and most recently Omar all set new early-season marks for their designated letter. In addition, Cristobal also set a new early season mark for the "C" storm. The majority of the old record holders were set during the brutal 2005 hurricane season, which brought Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Nana joins Hanna, Isaias, Marco and Laura as the only storms to reach hurricane strength so far this year.
This year is likely to continue to set more early formation records, with the next storms on the bubble being Philippe from Sept. 17, 2005, and Rita from Sept. 18, 2005. The next names on the list for 2020 are Paulette and Rene.
The area west of Africa to the Caribbean is likely to continue to generate tropical systems or be a source of origin in the coming weeks.
There exists a high chance of tropical depression formation in this zone from late this weekend to early next week as a strong disturbance drifts westward.
Even though the peak of hurricane season occurs on Sept. 10, hurricane season continues through the end of November, and this year the Atlantic has the potential to remain active through November and perhaps into December.
Once all of the letters of the alphabet have been exhausted, Greek letters will then be used. The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used. The 2005 season was the only year in which the Greek alphabet had to be accessed for hurricane names.
Early this summer, AccuWeather meteorologists predicted a hyperactive peak hurricane season, which is now underway. AccuWeather meteorologists are calling for up to 24 tropical storms and up to 11 hurricanes this season.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo
News / Hurricane
Nana strikes Belize as hurricane with damaging winds, flooding rainfall
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Published Sep 2, 2020 2:16 PM EST
Omar is alive in the Atlantic. The last time Omar was a storm, it took an unusual path in the Caribbean. Find out more on the history of O-named storms.
On Thursday evening, Nana dissipated inland over southwestern Guatemala after striking Central America late Wednesday as the fifth hurricane of the 2020 season.
Nana maintained Category 1 hurricane status with 75-mph winds as it made landfall around 2 a.m. early Thursday on the coast of Belize, a country located just to the south of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in Central America.
As Nana moved farther inland, it began to lose wind intensity and it dropped back to a tropical storm. By 10 a.m. Thursday, maximum sustained winds had fallen to 45 mph, and the storm was about 125 miles north of Guatemala City, Guatemala. As of 4 p.m. CDT Thursday, the storm weakened into a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. At 10 p.m. CDT Thursday, the National Hurricane Center issued the last advisory on Nana, as its circulation had dissipated over the mountainous terrain of southern Guatemala.
About 4,000 residents in southern Belize moved to shelters ahead of the storm, The Associated Press reported. Belize officials did not immediately report any injuries, The AP said.
Around 11 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Nana was located about 60 miles southeast of Belize City, Belize, and was moving to the west at a brisk at 16 mph. The system quickly strengthened from a tropical storm packing 60-mph winds as of 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday to a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph just three hours later.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
As the storm weakened, hurricane warnings were discontinued for the coast of Belize from Belize City southward to the Belize-Guatemala border, the National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane watch was also lifted for the coast of Belize from north of Belize City to the Belize-Mexico border.
By Thursday morning, all coastal watches and warnings throughout the region had been discontinued.
Nana is the first hurricane to make landfall in Belize since Earl in 2016, said Colorado State University Meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.
Building seas, torrential downpours and gusty thunderstorms preceded Nana into early Thursday over portions of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, southeastern Mexico and Nicaragua. Small craft should remain in port in this region, and bathers should avoid the surf due to increasing rip currents.
On Wednesday, up to at least 7.56 inches of rain fell over Roatan Island, Honduras, and at least 2.87 inches had fallen over Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, as of Thursday morning.
This image, captured on Wednesday midday, September 2, 2020, shows Nana over the Gulf of Honduras, over the northwestern part of the Caribbean Sea. Thunderstorms were focusing strongly near the center of the storm, despite some northerly wind shear present. (NOAA/GOES-East)
As Nana continues to push inland over Central America, rain and wind will gradually decrease as the storm unwinds during Friday.
A general 1-4 inches of rain is forecast from northern and western Honduras to northern El Salvador, southeastern Mexico and much of Belize and Guatemala.
"The heaviest rain with an AccuWeather StormMax™ of 8 inches is likely in the mountains of Guatemala and southernmost Mexico," Kottlowski said.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said that flash flooding and mudslides would be the greatest risks to lives and property in the region.
AccuWeather meteorologists believe Nana will rate a 1 on the RealImpact™ Scale in Central America due primarily to the storm's small size, but also the flooding and mudslide potential. This scale was introduced by AccuWeather in 2019 to better relay the full impact of hurricanes and tropical storms. Unlike the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is based solely on wind speeds, the RealImpact™ Scale factors in other key weather elements.
Related:
There is a remote chance the circulation from Nana survives the trip over the rugged mountains of Central America and reaches the Pacific Ocean.
Should this occur and the system strengthens over the warm waters of the Pacific, it would be assigned a new name based on the list of Eastern Pacific tropical storms.
"While there is a small chance that Nana survives and reaches the Pacific, we feel it is much more likely for the storm to break up over the mountains, due to its small size," Kottlowski said.
The most recent storm to cross from the Atlantic into the East Pacific was Hurricane Otto in 2016. Forecasters say it's much more common for storms to cross from the Atlantic into the East Pacific than the other way around due to prevailing steering winds out of the east and thus weaker wind shear over the region. However, earlier this season, Cristobal became one rare crossover storm when it developed from what was left of the former Tropical Storm Amanda, the first named system of the 2020 East Pacific season. Cristobal became the earliest "C" named storm on record for the Atlantic season when it developed on June 2.
Nana continued the streak of record-setting early tropical storm formations in 2020. Every storm from Edouard through Nana and most recently Omar all set new early-season marks for their designated letter. In addition, Cristobal also set a new early season mark for the "C" storm. The majority of the old record holders were set during the brutal 2005 hurricane season, which brought Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Nana joins Hanna, Isaias, Marco and Laura as the only storms to reach hurricane strength so far this year.
This year is likely to continue to set more early formation records, with the next storms on the bubble being Philippe from Sept. 17, 2005, and Rita from Sept. 18, 2005. The next names on the list for 2020 are Paulette and Rene.
The area west of Africa to the Caribbean is likely to continue to generate tropical systems or be a source of origin in the coming weeks.
There exists a high chance of tropical depression formation in this zone from late this weekend to early next week as a strong disturbance drifts westward.
Even though the peak of hurricane season occurs on Sept. 10, hurricane season continues through the end of November, and this year the Atlantic has the potential to remain active through November and perhaps into December.
Once all of the letters of the alphabet have been exhausted, Greek letters will then be used. The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used. The 2005 season was the only year in which the Greek alphabet had to be accessed for hurricane names.
Early this summer, AccuWeather meteorologists predicted a hyperactive peak hurricane season, which is now underway. AccuWeather meteorologists are calling for up to 24 tropical storms and up to 11 hurricanes this season.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo