Tropical Storm Lisa is intensifying within the western Caribbean Sea and can likely develop into the Atlantic Basin’s next hurricane before approaching the coast of Central America later Wednesday.
Where is Tropical Storm Lisa?
As of late Tuesday morning, Tropical Storm Lisa was centered 270 miles east of Honduras’ Isla Roatán.
Lisa is packing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph because it moves westward across the western Caribbean Sea.
The National Hurricane Center assigns names to tropical storms and hurricanes from considered one of six rotating lists. A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds between 39 and 73 mph. If maximum sustained winds reach a minimum of 74 mph, a tropical storm is then declared a hurricane.
Where are watches and warnings in effect for Tropical Storm Lisa?
The Bay Islands of Honduras have been placed under a Hurricane Warning together with the Belize coast from Puerto Barrios to Chetumal. Hurricane-force winds (74-plus mph) are expected to start there by early Wednesday.
A Hurricane Watch has been issued for the Belize coast from Chetumal to Puerto Costa Maya. Hurricane-force winds will likely arrive there on Wednesday afternoon.
Your entire north coast of mainland Honduras is under a Tropical Storm Warning, as is the north coast of Guatemala and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico from Chetumal to Punta Herrero. Tropical-storm-force winds (39-plus mph) are expected in these areas from Tuesday night through Wednesday.
What’s the forecast for Tropical Storm Lisa?
Lisa will proceed to strengthen and is forecast to develop into a hurricane by early Wednesday over the northwestern Caribbean Sea.
The FOX Forecast Center expects that Tropical Storm Lisa will move toward the west over the subsequent couple of days, which implies it would pass south of the Cayman Islands on Tuesday, then move near or over the Bay Islands of Honduras early Wednesday before approaching mainland Central America later Wednesday.
Tropical Storm Lisa won’t pose any threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast as the present weather pattern will keep the system suppressed to the south.
What are the expected impacts of Tropical Storm Lisa?
In line with the FOX Forecast Center, Tropical Storm Lisa is predicted to supply 4 to six inches of rain across parts of Belize, the Bay Islands of Honduras, northern Guatemala and the southeastern portion of the Mexican state of Chiapas. Localized areas could see as much as 10 inches of rainfall.
The far southeastern portion of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, northern Honduras and central Guatemala could see 2 to 4 inches of rain, with isolated amounts as high as 6 inches.
Within the Cayman Islands and eastern Nicaragua, many areas will pick up about an inch of rain, but localized totals of as much as 2 inches usually are not ruled out.
The heavy rainfall could lead on to flash flooding in these areas along the trail of Lisa, particularly across Belize and into northern Guatemala, the southeastern portion of the Mexican state of Chiapas and the far southeastern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula.
2022 Atlantic hurricane season running barely below average
Lisa is the twelfth named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. Martin became the season’s thirteenth storm on Tuesday morning within the central North Atlantic.
A median season within the Atlantic features 14 named storms, so the season is running very near average as of early November.
The Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t officially end until Nov. 30, which implies there’s still a while for an extra storm to develop.