THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607270190
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 49 lines
Unlike the first two storms of the Atlantic hurricane season, Cesar does not appear to have the Outer Banks of North Carolina on its itinerary.
The tropical storm moved westward, away from South America's northern coast on Friday, heading into the open waters of the southern Caribbean where it is expected to intensify.
Cesar was described Friday afternoon as ``poorly organized, but strong'' after hurricane specialists studied the latest satellite images and data from an Air Force research aircraft.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said it appeared Cesar was starting to reorganize after edging along the South American coast and the mountains of Colombia for the last two days.
``We still expect Cesar to intensify and reach hurricane strength within 24 hours, before reaching the coast of Nicaragua,'' said meteorologist Jerry D. Jarrell of the Hurricane Center.
Cesar has already drenched the coastal areas of Colombia with 4 to 6 inches of rain and appears heading for landfall in Central America, possibly by this evening.
The Colombian government posted a hurricane warning for the islands of San Andres and Providencia while the governments of Nicaragua and Honduras issued hurricane warnings for the coast from Bluefields, Nicaragua, northward to Limon, Honduras.
At 5 p.m., the center of Cesar was located near 12.1 north latitude and 77.2 west Longitude or about 440 miles east-southeast of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.
The storm was moving west about 18 mph and that motion was expected to continue through today. Maximum sustained winds were about 50 mph and some strengthening is expected. Tropical storm force winds extended up to 145 miles from the center, mostly to the north of the storm.
Cesar formed Thursday from the third tropical depression of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season. The season's first two storms, Tropical Storm Arthur and Hurricane Bertha, both moved into the Carolinas.
The Hurricane Center also is keeping tabs on a new tropical wave that was located a few hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles on Friday night. It was moving west about 15 mph and is forecast to bring cloudiness and showers to the islands this weekend.
The Hurricane Center said upper-level winds are not favorable for the storm to intensify, however.
A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm once its top sustained winds reach 39 mph. Tropical storms become hurricanes at 74 mph. by CNB