Hurricane Delta becomes a Category 3 storm
October 6, 2020
TLCD begins closing floodgates
October 6, 202010:20 a.m. Tuesday update – National Hurricane Center shows max sustained winds are 130 mph for Delta which makes it a Cat. 4 storm. Pressure at 954 mb.
Data from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that Delta is continuing to rapidly strengthen. The maximum winds have increased to near 130 mph (215 km/h) with higher gusts. This makes Delta a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind
Scale. Although some weakening is likely when Delta moves over the Yucatan peninsula, re-strengthening is forecast when the hurricane moves over the southern Gulf of Mexico.
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At 10 am, the center of Hurricane Delta was located near latitude 18.2 North, longitude 82.6 West. Delta is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph (26 km/h). A west-northwestward to northwestward motion is expected over the next couple of days. A slower northwestward to north-northwest motion is forecast to begin by late Wednesday or Wednesday night. On the forecast track, the center of Delta is expected to continue to pass southwest of the Cayman Islands through early this afternoon, and move over the northeastern portion of the Yucatan peninsula late tonight or early Wednesday. Delta is forecast to move over the southern Gulf of Mexico Wednesday afternoon, and be over the southern or central Gulf of Mexico through Thursday.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 km). The estimated minimum central pressure from NOAA reconnaissance aircraft data is 955 mb (28.20 inches).
