The Weather Channel – Hurricane Joaquin is now moving away from Bermuda, after lashing the archipelago with wind gusts over 60 mph and heavy rainfall on Sunday.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for Bermuda, but overall conditions should improve through Monday.
Joaquin is now forecast to head across the open northern Atlantic Ocean while transitioning to a non-tropical low pressure system by early Wednesday.
(MAP: Track Hurricane Joaquin with our New Interactive Storm Tracker)
Winds gusted frequently over 50 mph Sunday in Bermuda, with the strongest official wind gust reaching 64 mph at the Bermuda International Airport shortly before 9 p.m. Gusts over 50 mph continued in Bermuda as of early Monday morning.
Although rainfall and winds will diminsh through Monday in Bermuda, high surf was expected to continue for the next day or so.
Hurricane Joaquin Information
The latest statistics as provided by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center.
Visible Satellite and Bermuda Conditions
During daylight, you will see the clouds more or less as they would look to the naked eye from space. At night, it’s too dark to see the clouds, so this image will display infrared satellite data instead. Current conditions in Bermuda are also shown.
Projected Path
Second Wave of Strengthening
Joaquin had another bout of intensification early Saturday. Utilizing an instrument for estimating surface winds, the stepped frequency microwave radiometer (SFMR), a Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance mission Saturday estimated surface winds of around 135 knots, or 155 mph just before noon.
This was just 2 mph shy of becoming a Category 5 hurricane.
By wind speed, Joaquin at that time was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Igor in 2010 also had 155 mph maximum winds. It has been over eight years since the last Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic basin, Hurricane Felix in 2007.
Joaquin’s Hits the Central Bahamas Hard
Flooding from storm surge and torrential rainfall has been documented on Long Island and Acklins, among other central Bahamas locations. A Weather Underground personal weather station at Pitts Town, Crooked Island, reported winds up to 84 mph before it stopped reporting.
A total blackout was reported on the three hardest-hit islands of the central Bahamas. About 85 percent of the homes in one settlement on Crooked Island were reportedly destroyed.
(MORE: Bahamas Latest News/Impacts)
Rapid Intensification Earlier
An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance aircraft flying through Hurricane Joaquin Thursday morning found estimated surface winds of 117 knots, or roughly 135 mph, in the southwestern eyewall’s deep thunderstorms.
At one point between Wednesday morning and Thursday evening, Joaquin saw a pressure drop of 57 millibars in about 39 hours, going from a strong tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in the process.
Colorado State University tropical meteorologist Dr. Phil Klotzbach said Joaquin was the first Category 4 hurricane to track through The Bahamas in October since 1866. Joaquin’s minimum central pressure of 931 millibars Thursday was also the lowest observed in an Atlantic Basin hurricane since September 2010, when Hurricane Igor bottomed out at 924 millibars.
Klotzbach also said Joaquin was only the 20th Category 4 or 5 hurricane to impact The Bahamas in historical records dating to 1851, and the second latest in the season to do so. Only a Nov. 10, 1932 Category 4 hurricane occurred later, Klotzbach says.
Hurricane Joaquin rapidly intensified as wind shear – harmful to the intensification of tropical cyclones – diminished, allowing Joaquin’s core convection to feed off the warm water near the central Bahamas.