As Hurricane Earl speeds closer, the territory’s hurricane status was upgraded to a tropical storm warning Sunday morning. The hurricane watch remains in place.
Forecasters expect it to further strengthen and it seems likely that it will be a Category 2 or 3 when it nears the territory Monday. Winds remain at 75 mph with higher gusts. The hurricane is still on a westward track at 17 mph.
At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center announced that Tropical Storm Earl had become a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph and higher gusts, and its predicted path continues to inch closer to the V.I.
“Still warm, fresh out of the oven,” meteorologist Jose Alamo at the National Weather Service office in San Juan said.
Alamo had been discussing Tropical Storm Earl’s 8 a.m. update with a reporter and had just said it was “within an eyelash” of becoming a hurricane when he got the news from a colleague that it had reached hurricane strength.
Earl keeps getting closer and closer.
“Tell people to get ready,” Alamo said.
As of the 8 a.m. update Sunday, the center of Earl is expected to pass close to the northern Virgin Islands as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane. Alamo expects the center of Earl to track about 60 miles from St. Thomas and St. John and 100 miles from St. Croix at around 2 p.m. Monday. That’s about 30 miles closer than it was at the 5 a.m. update.
Currently tropical storm forces winds extend outward 160 miles from the center of Earl. However, Alamo said the picture for people on the south side of the storm is better because the heaviest rains extend outward only 15 miles.
Conditions will start to deteriorate later Sunday.
As of 8 a.m., the territory remains on a hurricane watch, a change from Saturday’s tropical storm watch. A watch means hurricane conditions are possible within the next 36 hours. The British Virgin Islands are on a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch.
As of 8: 30 a.m., Earl is centered at 17.1 degrees north latitude and 57.7 degrees west longitude. This puts it 370 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. The wind speed stands at 70 mph, with gusts to 75 mph. It is moving west at 18 mph. The barometric pressure stands at 985 millibars or 29.08 inches.
As for the low pressure system following Earl, Alamo said it appears that it will take a similar track as Earl and reach the area by the end of the week.
“It still looks like a vigorous system,” Alamo said.
