An extremely powerful storm of cat-4 is located around 19.2°N and 84.5°W, in the Caribbean about 200km east-southeast of Cozumel (Mexico). It is moving northwest with a speed of about 25kmh and is likely to enter the Gulf of Mexico in the next 24 hours as a cat-3 hurricane. As the storm is travelling over very warm waters, it is likely to gain strength and stands a chance to attain the highest category of cat-5 over the next three days before making landfall on Friday. The storm is likely to recurve to move initially north and then northeast to make landfall over northeast portion of the Yucatan peninsula.
Hurricane Delta is the 25th named storm of the season and has broken the record for the earliest 25th named storm ever to form in that area. It is also the fastest storm to intensify from tropical depression to cat-4 hurricane in the recent time. The storm underwent rapid intensification and gained wind speed of more than 50km in 24 hours. The storm will reach the southern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday afternoon (local time), central Gulf on Thursday and northern Gulf coast on Friday.
The tropical storms after entering the Gulf of Mexico invariably strike somewhere or the other landmass. Most of the October storms in the Gulf are recurving and pose threat to north and northeast Florida. Hurricane Delta is dangerous for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Louisiana and Alabama have already declared a state of emergency.
Hurricane Delta has the catastrophic potential of storm surge, life-threatening floods, torrential rains and extreme velocity winds in excess of 200kmh. Earlier the region has been battered by series of storms in this season. Hurricane Hanna hit South Texas in July, Lara and Marco in August and Sally and Beta struck the Gulf Coast in September. The Hurricane season has a long way to go until November.
