Hurricane Delta has intensified into a Category 3 in the Caribbean Sea and is expected to hammer Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by Wednesday. Delta continues to pose a hurricane danger to the U.S. Gulf Coast late this week, with threats of storm-surge flooding, damaging winds and heavy rainfall.
Written content by The Weather Channel meteorologists
Residents from the extreme upper Texas coast and Louisiana to the western Florida Panhandle should be checking frequently for important forecast updates and have their hurricane plans ready to go.
Happening Now
The maximum sustained winds in Delta are now 130 mph, and the storm is moving to the west-northwest at 16 mph.
Winds in Delta increased by 85 mph in the 24 hours ending 11:20 a.m. EDT Tuesday. That is more than double the criteria for the rapid intensification of a tropical cyclone, which is a wind speed increase of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less.
Delta’s intensification was due to an environment of the highest ocean heat content anywhere in the tropical Atlantic basin, low wind shear and sufficiently moist air, in a region notorious for rapid intensification in October, according to Sam Lillo, a NOAA scientist based in Boulder, Colorado.
Current Alerts
A hurricane warning is in effect from Tulum to Dzilam, Mexico, including Cancún and Cozumel. Hurricane conditions are expected in this area by early Wednesday, with conditions deteriorating Tuesday.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for the Cayman Islands and western Cuba, where tropical storm conditions are expected Tuesday and/or Wednesday.
Forecast Timing, Intensity
Delta is expected to continue strengthening and will be a major hurricane – likely Category 3 or 4 status – as it passes very near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula – including Cozumel and Cancún – late Tuesday night through Wednesday.
This could be the strongest hurricane strike on Cancún in 15 years, since Wilma stalled over the northeast Yucatan Peninsula after becoming the strongest Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone on record, by pressure. Learn more from The Weather Channel.
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