NHC tracks Hurricane Oscar, Tropical Depression Nadine

The National Hurricane Center on Sunday was tracking Hurricane Oscar in the western Caribbean Sea and Tropical Depression Nadine over Central America.

Hurricane Oscar quickly strengthened yesterday afternoon after becoming a tropical storm near the Turks and Caicos earlier that morning.

As of the 8 a.m. NHC advisory, Oscar was a compact but powerful Category 1 hurricane located about 10 miles southwest of Great Inagua Island and 115 mph east-southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba, moving west-southwest at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and higher gusts. Gradual weakening is expected to begin by tonight and Monday.

A continued west-southwestward motion at a slower forward speed is expected through tonight, followed by a turn toward the northwest and north on Monday and Tuesday. On the forecast track, the center of Oscar
will move away from Great Inagua later this morning before making landfall along the northeastern coast of Cuba later this afternoon or evening. The system is then expected to move across eastern Cuba
tonight and Monday. Oscar will then accelerate northeastward across
the central Bahamas on Tuesday.

A hurricane warning was issued for the south Bahamas and north coast of the Cuban Provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo to Punta Maisi.

Oscar is a very small hurricane, NHC said, with hurricane-force winds only extending outward up to 5 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 45 miles.

Oscar is not expected to pose a direct threat to the United States.

Meanwhile, Nadine made landfall near Belize City around noon Saturday as a tropical storm but by evening weakened into a depression while moving over northern Guatemala.

As of the 8 a.m. advisory, the depression was located 85 miles east of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, moving west-southwest at 15 mph with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph. A continued westward to west-southwestward motion is expected this morning.

On the forecast track, Nadine will move across portions of southern Mexico this morning. NHC said continued weakening is expected and Nadine is forecast to dissipate Sunday.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has produced 14 named storms so far, including nine hurricanes. Three of those struck Florida. It also has now had two potential tropical cyclones, the first of which did not develop before making landfall back in September, but the reason the NHC is up to 15 in its naming scheme, despite 14 storms being named.

Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.