Oscar hits Cuba as one of the smallest hurricanes on record
Hurricane Oscar is expected to weaken after making landfall late Sunday
Hurricane Oscar made landfall in northeastern Cuba on Saturday evening as a tiny but mighty storm.
Cuba, which continues to deal with the fallout from a power crisis this week, will see strong winds and flooding rains over the next 24 hours as the storm traverses the island’s rugged terrain.
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Oscar unexpectedly and rapidly intensified into a hurricane on Saturday as it moved through the southwestern Atlantic Ocean.
The storm formed as one of the smallest hurricanes ever recorded in terms of its wind field, according to data collected by the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Hurricane force winds only extended about 10 km from the centre of the storm when it first formed on Saturday. The size of its tiny hurricane force wind field doubled to about 20 km by midday Sunday. (The smallest Atlantic storm on record was Tropical Storm Marco in 2008.)
Oscar’s diminutive size evaded detection by satellites and initially bamboozled weather models; forecasters only discovered its advanced strength when a Hurricane Hunter aircraft penetrated the storm’s core.
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“Having these critical in-situ aircraft observations has been invaluable to diagnosing the current intensity of the storm, and we thank the crew for flying this mission on short notice this morning,” the NHC wrote on Saturday evening.
Forecasters expect Oscar to linger over eastern Cuba for the next day before making a sharp northeasterly turn toward the central Bahamas to begin the week. It’s possible that the island’s mountainous terrain could significantly disrupt its structure and force it to weaken more than expected.
Rainfall amounts of 125 mm to 250 mm, with isolated amounts of 375 mm, are expected across eastern Cuba, with 50 mm to 100 mm, and isolated amounts of 150 mm, expected in southeastern Bahamas through Tuesday.
As of now, the storm poses no threat to the United States or Canada in the next five days.
Header image courtesy of NOAA.
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