Tropical Storm Barry is just about to become the first official hurricane of the 2019 season on the Atlantic ocean.
Barry was located 150 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 200 miles southeast of Morgan City, Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said in its 11 a.m. advisory on Thursday July 11. It has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, just above the threshold for a tropical storm, and is moving west at 5 mph.
A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch have been issued for most of the Louisiana coast, with more watches and warnings possibly later Thursday.
The system’s slow speed is expected to allow it to gain strength as it remains over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Sometime Friday, the system is expected to become the first hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season, according to forecasters.
Engineer Sareti Cardós Pacheco, a meteorologist at the Mérida Regional Hydrometeorological Center in the Yucatan Conagua, indicates that Barry could become a tropical cyclone and then strengthened as the first category 1 hurricane of the 2019 season.
“Today, Thursday, the system would evolve into a tropical depression and in the course of the day would become a tropical storm. Barry is predicted to become a category 1 hurricane by early Friday July 12, with winds of 119 kilometers per hour “, the specialist said.
Barry will be the first hurricane in the Atlantic for this season, which began on June 1 and will end on November 30.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom
