Powerful Hurricane Nicole Drawing a Bead on Bermuda with 125 mph Winds

LATE REPORT
The weather station at BDA just reported a sustained wind of 68 knots (78 mph) with gusts to 90 knots (104 mph) at 8:52 a.m. CDT.

ORIGINAL POST

Major Hurricane Nicole is closing in on the beautiful island nation of Bermuda this morning. Top winds are 125 mph, but the system looks a little less organized on satellite over the past few hours after strengthening a good bit yesterday.

The Air Force plane that just arrived in the storm just located the center near 31.93N, 64.95W, or about 27 miles south southwest of Hamilton, Bermuda.

The hurricane is moving north northeast at 15 mph. On its present course, the center will pass very near the island in the next hour. The entire island will likely experience the 25 mile wide eye.

The island is in the northern eyewall right now. At 8:04 a.m. CDT, the Airport measured a sustained wind of 67 mph with gusts to 85 mph. The barometer was down to 29.03 inches of mercury and it was plunging like a rock. The pressure dropped from 29.12 to 29.03 inches between 7:55 and 8:04.

The NHC reports that a sustained wind of 79 mph with a gust to 105 mph was just reported at Pearl Island. The Bermuda Weather Service reports that an elevated station at Commissioner’s Point reported a sustained wind of 92 mph with a gust to 122 mph.

Bermuda has sustained many hurricanes over the years and the buildings are designed to withstand high winds, mostly made of limestone. But there will be heavy damage. We hope and pray there will be no loss of life or serious injury. A surge of 6-8 feet is forecast to impact the island. 5-8 inches of rain is also expected.

Interestingly, every structure on the island is required to have a water collection system. The roofs are even designed to be purification systems. Bermuda has no natural water source.

Category: Tropical