
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 1, 1995                   TAG: 9510020118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MIAMI                                LENGTH: Short

STORM NAMERS FINALLY COME TO 'O'

For the first time since forecasters began naming Atlantic storms in 1950, they've gotten to ``O:'' Tropical Storm Opal formed off Mexico's northern Yucatan Peninsula Saturday.

Opal is the 15th named storm of this busy Atlantic hurricane season.

``It's rolling along the north coast of the Yucatan,'' said Lixion Avila, hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center. ``It's suffering from land. They don't like to be over land.''

The government of Mexico issued a tropical storm warning for the northeastern portion of the Yucatan from Cozumel and Cancun to Progreso as heavy rain caused flooding and closed ports in eastern Mexico.

Forecasters predicted more than 10 inches of rain could fall in the Yucatan and western Cuba.

The slow-moving Opal, with top winds of 45 mph, was about 50 miles north-northeast of Merida, Mexico, and expected to strengthen as it moved into the Gulf of Mexico.

Its projected path puts Opal near the Louisiana coast on Tuesday, but Avila cautioned that such long-term predictions have an error rate of 300 miles either way.

- Associated Press

by CNB