Tropical Storm Sara closes in on ‘life-threatening’ and ‘potentially catastrophic’ impact with Central America

CNN
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Tropical Storm Sara is unleashing heavy rainfall in northeastern Honduras, with life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides anticipated this weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Sara has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as of early Friday morning, and further strengthening is possible in the coming days if the storm center largely stays offshore from Honduras’ northern coast.

Earlier forecasts from the National Hurricane Center told residents along the eastern Gulf of Mexico to monitor the storm for its potential to reach the US, but the center now believes the storm might not survive its trek through Central America and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

Sara, which formed Thursday afternoon as it closed in on the Honduras-Nicaragua border, is the 18th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. It’s a season that’s lived up to initial hyperactive forecasts and hasn’t played by the rules.

Tropical activity should be winding down in November, but Sara is now the third named storm this month thanks to exceptionally warm water wrought by climate change.

The storm, which may make a few brief landfalls this weekend as it skirts the Honduran coast, may be able to tap into the warm water of the western Caribbean Sea to sustain itself.

Tropical storm alerts have been issued for parts of Honduras through Friday. The storm’s rain began Thursday in Honduras and Nicaragua and strong winds are expected to ramp up.

The storm will bring “life-threatening” flooding and rainfall up to 30 inches to parts of Honduras, the NHC warned, and double-digit rainfall totals may impact other parts of Central America. That could mean “widespread areas of life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides.”

It is forecast to potentially threaten Belize with storm surge and gusty winds by Sunday.

Multiple scenarios for what could happen to Sara after its interaction with Honduras and the Yucatán Peninsula were possible over the past 24 hours, but one appears to be winning out and it’s good news for a storm-weary US Gulf Coast that’s been hit by five hurricanes this year.

Sara is now expected to track further west over more of Central America and the Yucatán and weaken after being starved of the warm water it would need to survive. Sara will likely undergo too much interaction with land in Central America and Mexico to survive into the Gulf of Mexico, the NHC said Thursday afternoon.