Hurricane Dolores expected to get stronger in the Pacific

The third named storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Claudette, formed yesterday, Monday July 13, approximately 350 Michigan (560 km) off the coast of Virginia and is tracking northeast over open waters as a tropical storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). The storm does not pose a threat to the United States.

National Hurricane Center forecasters are predicting Claudette will pass southeast of Nova Scotia today and approach New Foundland tomorrow.

GOES-West provided an infrared image of Hurricane Dolores on July 14 at 1330 UTC (9:30 a.m. EDT) that showed the storm skirting the southwestern Mexico coastline. Dolores’ maximum sustained winds intensified to 85 miles per hour, and the storm was moving northwest at about 7 miles per hour.

Claudette is centered about 310 miles (500 kilometers) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is moving northeast near 20 mph (31 kph).

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1,004 mb (29.65 inches).

“A northeastward to north-northeastward motion with some increase in forward speed is expected during the next day or so”, the NHC update said.

The storm will likely weaken to a tropical depression by the time it hits the island portion of the province, with wind gusts between 50 and 70 km/hr.