Cuba Tracks Ida Back into Caribbean

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Nov. 6 – Tropical Depression Ida has left Honduras and is now back in the western Caribbean on route to the top of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.  At 6:00 p.m. EST the Cuban Meteorological Institute predicted that Ida would probably become a tropical storm again on Saturday.

The Institute said that Ida had 35 MPH winds with a central pressure of 1007 millibars.  The storm is headed on a north-northwest course.

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center in Miami five-day cone shows Ida as a tropical storm reaching the Yucatan by sometime Sunday afternoon.  The storm would then move in the Gulf of Mexico and head north toward the US Gulf Coast, including Florida.

At this time, no part of Cuba is expected to receive the brunt of the storm, although rains could occur in parts of western Pinar del Rio province.

The NHC does not predict that Ida will regain hurricane strength before reaching the United States.

Cuba was hit hard by three devastating  hurricanes last year but so far this cyclone season, which ends at the close of November, has been calm.