At 6:00 pm local time, Hurricane Felix was near the Honduras-Nicaragua border city and heading west at 18 miles an hour. The latest reports show that the storm is still a very dangerous category four storm but there are two significant developments: the storm has weakened somewhat over the last 12 hours, and, presently, the forecast track shows the storm as being less of a threat to Belize. But these are just forecasts: the hurricane is formidable, and is projected to make landfall in southern Belize. We discussed these developments with acting Chief Meteorologist Ramon Frutos this evening. He says we won’t know what Felix will do until he is through with Honduras.
Ramon Frutos, Acting Chief Meteorologist
“At three o’clock this afternoon to six this afternoon, that’s a three hour period, Hurricane Felix has not weakened considerably. One of the factors is that it has maintained its category four hurricane force winds of 135 miles per hour with higher gusts and what has changed now is that its speed has diminished to 18 miles per hour. It was at 20 or 21 earlier today. Now as Felix moves closer to the coastline of extreme northern Nicaragua and northeastern Honduras, it will slow down and it could intensify a little bit before it makes landfall in that area. So this is what we are watching at the moment.
Another point of interest is how Felix would interact with the coastline of northern Honduras as it moves from east to west across that part of Honduras during tonight. That will be a determining factor on how it will impact the coastline of Belize come late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning and that is what we’ll be monitoring very closely during the course of tonight and early tomorrow morning because depending on how Felix interacts with the coastline of Honduras, that will indicate to us, if it comes out of this interaction as a weakened or if maintain its integrity if the eye wall or most of the storm remains offshore or over sea as it moves along the northern coast of Honduras.
So as I mentioned Jules, this is what will determine what type of system or what type of monster will be coming towards our coastline, especially the southern coast of Belize where the trajectory is indicating Felix will make landfall come early Wednesday morning on the 5th of September.”
Frutos says the greatest threats to Belize are heavy rains and tropical storm force winds which may extend 100 miles from the center.
