Storm Helena turned into a hurricane this Wednesday near the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico, keeping the entire state of Florida (southeastern United States) on alert for its arrival on Thursday night.
According to the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC), Helena has strengthened in recent hours and now has maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour, and is expected to intensify even further today.
Storm Helena, the ninth cyclone of the season and the eighth named, is bringing high winds and rain to Cozumel and Tulum, on the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, both under hurricane warnings.
In these areas, as well as in western Cuba and the Cayman Islands, accumulated strong winds with rain of up to 20 centimeters are expected, which could cause “significant flooding”, according to the NHC.
The storm is located 135 kilometers north-northeast of Cozumel (Mexico) and 810 kilometers south-southwest of Tampa, Florida (United States), according to the bulletin released at 4:00 pm in Lisbon by the NHC, which warns that the level from the sea it can rise up to 1.2 meters in Pinar del Rio (Cuba) and in eastern Yucatan.
Helena is moving north-northwest at 17 kilometers per hour and will generally maintain a northerly trajectory from today until Thursday, when it will approach the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, possibly as a major hurricane, that is, category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with a maximum of 5.
According to the NHC, the center of Hurricane Helena could reach Florida on Thursday night, in the region known as the ‘Great Basin’ and which has a low population density.
All of southern Florida is under a warning for Helena, with the west coast from Englewood to Anclote River, which encompasses Tampa Bay, under a hurricane warning and where seas are expected to rise up to 2.5 meters due to the storm.
Further north of Englewood, in areas like Chassahowitzka, sea rises could reach 15 feet above average, a situation that could cause threatening flooding, warns the NHC.
The entire Atlantic coast of Georgia and much of South Carolina are also under a tropical storm watch.
Helena is the fifth hurricane to form in the Atlantic this season and, if it hits Florida, as expected, it will be the fourth hurricane to reach North American soil this year, after Beryl, Debby and Francine.
According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began on June 1, could see “above average” activity, with eight to 13 hurricanes, including four to seven of large size.
