Hurricane Dorian Is Barely Moving at All. Here ’s Why That Makes it Especially Dangerous

Hurricane Dorian, which slammed the Bahamas early Monday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, is packing remarkably strong winds — but the storm itself is crawling along, moving at a mere 1 mile per hour early Monday before slowing to “stationary” as of Monday afternoon. The storm’s glacial pace will result in even more devastation, meteorologists say. With sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts up to 220 mph at the time of landfall in the Bahamas, Dorian made its mark as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record. While it was recategorized as a Category 4 storm late Monday morning, with winds of 155 mph, it remains an extremely dangerous storm, forecasters say. In part, that’s because it’s moving so slowly. Adam Douty, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, says Dorian will move as slowly as 1 or 2 mph “for the next 12 hours or so.” For those in Hurricane Dorian’s path, that’s a big cause for concern. A slow-moving storm “makes the flooding worse, you have continued battering with the wind so it has time to weaken structures, and once they’re weakened it could damage them further,” Douty says. In addition, Dorian will likely cause significant coastal erosion along the coast with “hours and hours of waves” in the Bahamas. #Dorian has moved maybe 8mi during this 5 hour loop; all the while, it's been battering Grand Bahama and Great Abaco with storm surges >=20', winds ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Tags: Uncategorized onetime weather Source Type: news