She sure is strenghtening fast. Too fast.
Yes it is and starting to get a little scary.
a Hurricane Watch is in effect for Jamaica and for all of the Cayman Islands.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the northern coast of Venezuela from Caracas westward to punto fijo...including the offshore islands north of the coast and west of Caracas.
A Tropical Storm Warning is also in effect for portions of the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Salinas westward to the Dominican Republic/Haiti border...and for the entire southwestern peninsula of Haiti from the Dominican Republic/Haiti border to Port-au-Prince.
A Tropical Storm Warning is also in effect for Bonaire...Curacao... and Aruba.
Interests elsewhere in the central and western Caribbean should monitor the progress of Emily.
For storm information specific to your area...including possible inland watches and warnings...please monitor products issued by your local weather office.
At 2 am AST...0600z...the center of Hurricane Emily was located near latitude 13.7 north... longitude 68.3 west or about 350 miles... 560 km... south-southeast of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and about 635 miles...1025 km...east-southeast of Kingston Jamaica.
Emily is moving toward the west-northwest near 20 mph...32 km/hr... and this motion is expected to continue during the next 24 hours.
Information from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have continued to increase and are now near 135 mph...215 km/hr...with higher gusts. Emily is now a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale scale. Some additional strengthening is possible during the next 24 hours.
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 35 miles... 55 km... from the center...and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 125 miles...205 km.
The minimum central pressure recently reported by a hurricane hunter aircraft was 952 mb...28.11 inches.
Emily is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 2 to 4 inches across portions of the Netherlands Antilles. Rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches are expected over portions of Hispaniola...with isolated 8 inch amounts possible. These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides.
Repeating the 2 am AST position...13.7 N... 68.3 W. Movement toward...west-northwest near 20 mph. Maximum sustained winds...135 mph. Minimum central pressure... 952 mb.
The next advisory will be issued by the National Hurricane Center at 5 am AST.
Forecaster Stewart
And the scary part, with that track, is that it's threading the needle between landmasses that might disrupt it as it heads WNW. Other than maybe grazing part of the Yucatan, there isn't a thing out there to slow it down.
Folks in South Texas better start tying down the armadillos, that looks really nasty.
}:-)4