Tropical Storm Matthew is churning towards the Central American Coast tonight - and he seems to have Belize in the cross hairs. Storm force winds could be felt as early as Saturday night.
The threat is being taken very seriously: the ministry of education has announced that because of the storm threat all classes for primary secondary and tertiary schools have been cancelled countywide tomorrow. That's right, no school for everyone.
It is indeed a substantial threat as the 6:00 pm update put the storm 382 miles east of the Nicaraguan Coast with winds of 40 miles per hour heading west at 16 mile per hour.
Matthew is expected to make landfall at the Northeast end of Nicaragua and Honduras early Saturday, and that is when Weather Forecaster, Michael Gentle says Belize can expect to feel the first effects from the system.
Michael Gentle, Weather Forecaster
"The storm will emerge over the by the Bay Islands Saturday afternoon. So between Saturday night and Sunday then we start to see some of the effects of it because by midday Sunday from the projected path it should be right in our coastal waters. So starting Saturday and way into Sunday we will start to feel some effects of it."
Jim McFadzean "When do forecasters expect to see a gradual increase in the strength of this storm."
Michael Gentle, Weather Forecaster
"Well it is expected to continue over Honduras as a storm however we notice over the west Caribbean where we have fairly warm sea surface temperatures that predicting the strength of the storms sometime give problem with intensification so we need to watch keenly the progress of this system especially when it emerges over the waters of the northwest Caribbean area because even though we made advances in tracking the projected path of the system we still have problem with projecting intensification especially over the northwest Caribbean where the water is fairly warm."
Meantime, NEMO officials have already set into motion what it calls a "soft alert" for the country of Belize. NEMO's Coordinator for the city of Belize, roger Espejo says they are most concerned about the amount of rains the storm could bring, especially to low lying areas of the country.
Roger Espejo, NEMO Coordinator - Belize City
"In all likeliness it will bring a lot of rains and we have to be weary of that in the low laying areas and the parts of Belize that normally flood being the southern portion of the country and other low laying areas like the Belize River Valley and areas of that sort. We again don't want to create any panic of any sort but will be convening a meeting, all committees countrywide have been ask by NEMO to convene standard meetings which are convene in these times when ever there is a system that posses any sort of threat to Belize. Our district committees and all out town committees are ask to convene a meeting; a preparatory meeting, Belize City has been ask to convene a preparatory meeting so we will be convening a meeting tomorrow at the latest."
And while that is NEMO in the city, the national body issued its own public advisory this evening. It says that if the storm continues on its present path, it is anticipated that Belize will be impacted by a hurricane on Sunday September 26.
Heavy rainfall is expected countrywide - and those in flood prone areas are advised to move early and travelling to the cayes is not advised at this time. Public officers must be on standby - and all government vehicles are to be fuelled and parked at the ministry of works compound in their respective districts.
NEMO IS ON high alert and the preliminary phase and a tropical storm watch will be declared at 6:00 am tomorrow.
Matthew is the 13th named storm of the season.
