Tropical Storm Sara made landfall along the Belize coast on Sunday but lost organization before remnants make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and get sucked back to the east toward Florida next week.
Sara made landfall along the coast of Belize, near Dangriga, according to the NHC.
As of the National Hurricane Center’s 3 p.m. advisory, Sara was located about 160 miles south-southeast of Campeche, Mexico and moving west-northwest at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend out 80 miles.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Bay Islands of Honduras, the Caribbean Sea coast of Guatemala, the coast of Belize, and the coast of Mexico from Puerto Costa Maya southward to Chetumal.
https://x.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1858160351654944769
“Only small fluctuations in strength are anticipated until landfall,” forecasters said. “Weakening is forecast after the storm moves inland, and dissipation is expected over the southern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula tonight or on Monday.”
The slow storm is forecast to drop as much as 35 inches of rain over parts of northern Honduras and as much as 15 inches over the rest of Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua and the Mexican State of Quintana Roo, with the threat of flash flooding and mudslides.
Residents of the Potrerillos community, which sits in a tropical lowland in northwest Honduras, were evacuated from their homes due to the weather system, and some sought refuge at a school-turned-shelter.
On Sunday, food, plastic bags filled with clothes, appliances and other things filled the shelter as people waited to figure out what to do next after a swollen river flooded their homes.
The community, however, already faced that dilemma. It was ravaged in November 2020, when storms Eta and Iota passed through Honduras after initially making landfall in Nicaragua as powerful Category 4 hurricanes. Northern Honduras caught the worst of the storms with torrential rains that set off flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands. Eta alone was responsible for as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of rain along the northern coast.
“This flood that just happened is small compared to that of Eta and Iota… This, here, was full of people,” resident Israel Martinez said as he pointed around the shelter were he relocated after the 2020 storms and again this weekend. “For now, there are few who are sheltered here.”
The slow storm is forecast to drop as much as 35 inches of rain over parts of northern Honduras and as much as 15 inches over the rest of Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua and the Mexican State of Quintana Roo, with the threat of flash flooding and mudslides.
Long-term weather models still project the remnant low-pressure system to steer back to the east through the Gulf of Mexico afterward. Whatever is leftover could be affecting Florida by Wednesday.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has produced 18 named storms, 11 of which have become hurricanes. The season runs from June 1-Nov. 30.
Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano contributed to this report from Mexico City.