Ida churns up to hurricane status

| 04/11/2009

(CNS): Updated 7:00am. As residents of the Cayman Islands prepare for a long holiday weekend, they may also be preparing for some bad weather as Hurricane Ida makes slow progress through the Caribbean. The 9th storm of the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Ida formed on Wednesday morning off the coast of Nicaragua. According to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Ida is moving at around seven miles per hour and at 7:00an am (EST) on Thursday it had maximum sustained winds of near 75 mph making it a category one storm. Ida has formed close to the one year anniversary of Hurricane Paloma, which devastated Cayman Brac.

As with all late season hurricanes, Ida is likely to be unpredictable in is intensity and path, and although it does not present any immediate threat to the Cayman Islands, a slight change in direction could bring it closer to Cayman on Monday.

At 7:00am (EST) the centre of Ida was located about 60 miles north – north east of Bluefields, Nicaragua moving towards the northwest. The NHC said a gradual turn toward the northwest and a decrease in forward speed was expected over the next couple of days along with a decrease in the storms intensity as it makes landfall. Tropical storm force winds currently extend outward up to 50 miles.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Just checked CaymanPrepared.ky and it has no new update since Thursday although we are now under a Tropical Storm Warning according to Weather Underground and NOAA.  Why aren’t they more current with their updates? 

  2. "Breeze a blow" says:

    the Great Storm of 1932 was a November Storm…they normally start to the south of us in the Bay of Campeche at this time of year and come straight north, giving us very little time to react.

    • T says:

      Bay of Campeche is in the Gulf of Mexico, so is northwest of us.

      Please don’t leave an opening for Gordon to use lack of Geographical knowledge as the reason for the glass ceiling

      • I bought above sea level says:

        That trait is generally reserved for the citizens of the USA. I don’t think we want it to start rearing it’s ugly head here.

      • Sav/New says:

        Actaully more of a westsouthwest direction not north.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Wow, lets keep a close eye on this late one!

  4. Anonymous says:

    Lets pray that Ida goes in a different direction, since an Election is not around the corner.