13 September, 2017
Hurricane Katia wheeled in place off the Mexican Gulf coast on Thursday, but it was expected to gain strength before it approached land by late Friday or early Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It lost some strength before it landed about 115 miles (185 km) northwest of the port city of Veracruz as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds 75 mph (120 km/h). Storms of Category 3 and above are defined as major hurricanes.
Katia has "worrying characteristics" because it is very slow moving and could dump a lot of rain on areas that have been saturated in recent weeks, Luis Felipe Puente, head of Mexico's national emergency services, told domestic television on Wednesday.
Katia is now one of three active hurricanes in the Atlantic, as well as Jose and Irma. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.
WIND: Hurricane-force winds extend up to 25 miles from the center of the storm and tropical-storm-force winds extend up to 70 miles.
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For Jose, the government of Antigua has issued a tropical storm warning for Antigua, Barbuda, and Anguilla.
Two days of satellite imagery from NASA's Terra and NOAA's GOES East satellites showed that Hurricane Katia was starting to crawl to the coast of southeastern Mexico.
RAIN: Katia is expected to drop 10 to 15 inches of rain over northern Veracruz, eastern Hidalgo and Puebla. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
This visible light image from NOAA's GOES East satellite shows Hurricane Katia in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on September 8 at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 UTC). This is the storm's track, as of 10 a.m. Friday.
