While it’s a compact storm with a tiny eye, Hurricane Pablo is breaking records in the distant Atlantic Ocean. It became a hurricane earlier today at 18.3°; this makes it the farthest east an Atlantic named storm has first become a hurricane on record, breaking the old record set by Vince in 2005 which was upgraded at 18.9°W.
As of the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, the center of Hurricane Pablo was located near latitude 42.8 North, longitude 18.3 West. Pablo is moving toward the north-northeast near 32 mph and this motion should continue with a decrease in forward speed today. The National Hurricane Center believes the storm will move to the north and northwest with a decrease in forward speed tonight and tomorrow. This means in the short term, the storm should curve away from Europe.
Pablo is a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 mph with higher gusts. Weakening is forecast to begin this afternoon, and Pablo is expected to become post-tropical on Monday. Pablo remains a small tropical cyclone. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 10 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles. The estimated minimum central pressure is 983 mb or 29.03 inches.
While hurricane season runs through the end of November, both the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center expect no tropical cyclones to form within their respective basins over the next 5 days.
