Hurricane Matthew remains at Category 4 strength with sustained winds of 140 mph. The major hurricane made landfall over western Haiti on Tuesday morning, with intense winds and catastrophic flooding reported.
Tuesday October 4th – 11:00am (EDT)
Matthew appeared to intensify slightly before making landfall in Haiti as a category four storm. Heavy precipitation is battering the entire island of Hispaniola, which contains the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Conditions deteriorated overnight and the intense hurricane is battering currently battering Haiti. Hurricane Hunters found winds of 160 mph on Friday evening, pushing the storm to category five major hurricane status, the first to do so in 9 years. The storm has weakened somewhat over the weekend, with winds Monday afternoon are at 140 mph dropping the storm to Category 4.
A Major Hurricane is defined as Category 3 or greater, with winds exceeding 110 mph. Hurricane Matthew is the first storm to reach this threshold since Hurricane Joaquin in October of 2015.
Forecast:
After initially moving west last week, Matthew has made turn to the north over the past weekend. This northerly jog has pushed the storm to the east of Jamaica and over western Haiti.
Cuba will likely see the storm’s second landfall, later on Tuesday. Matthew is expected to maintain category four strength up to that point. Matthew will likely weaken to a category three after it interacts with Cuba and Hispaniola.
Matthew will then set its sights on the Bahamas and possibly the Southeast U.S. coast. Matthew will undergo numerous changes as it interacts with the islands of the Greater Antilles. There is potential that the storm will exit Cuba and curve very near the US coast. Tropical storm watches have already been issued for parts of the Florida Keys, and may later be expanded to the Florida peninsula.
Beyond Florida, the coast of the Carolinas appears to be most at risk. The Morecast team is currently forecasting a glancing blow to the Outer Banks as a general forecast, but much uncertainty still exists. We will know more after Matthew pushes past Cuba.
Our forecasters are closely monitoring the situation and will keep you up to date. For the latest breaking information be sure to follow along on our Twitter and Facebook pages. Follow @MORECAST_USA