The bad news is that Hurricane Lenny is strengthening. The good news is that it is a compact hurricane and is turning slightly southward which would bring it to pass further south of the DR than originally forecast. At 10 am, US time, the Hurricane was already a category two (moderate) hurricane. It had a east south-east course as it is making it way past Jamaica on to pass south of Haiti, and then the DR. Torrential rains are forecast and a hurricane watch could be issued for the DR later in the afternoon. The local Civil Defense authorities already notified the population issuing a red alert on television last night and volunteers are preparing the population for flooding and mudslides as torrential rains are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday. School was suspended for Tuesday preparations and Wednesday. While Lenny may affect travel to the southeastern and eastern coasts of the DR, the North Coast would only be affected if the hurricane drastically changed course. Lenny is the eighth hurricane of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. It is very unusual for a storm to develop so late in the season that starts in June and ends in November. Lenny was precocious. Only a few hours after becoming a named tropical storm, it escalated to hurricane strength. To monitor the hurricane, good links are: http://www.weather.com/weather_center/trop_season/ http://www.usatoday.com/weather/huricane/images/atlantic_track_lenny.htm http://www.gopbi.com/weather/storm/atlantic/lenny.html http://www.nlmoc.navy.mil/home1.shtml http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at199916.html http://www.intellicast.com/Tropical/World/UnitedStates/HurTrack1/
