In a year chock full of examples of Mother Nature returning fire against an earth’s population hell bent on destroying her, she has fired another salvo.  This time, it appears that she may be aiming for Nicaragua.

Meet Beta.  Not yet a hurricane, but rapidly developing into one.  The latest measurements from the National Hurricane Center tell us this tale:

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR  60 MPH… 95 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER
GUSTS.  STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS…AND
BETA COULD BECOME A HURRICANE LATE TONIGHT OR FRIDAY.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO  60 MILES
… 95 KM FROM THE CENTER.

While I’m not a big fan of the way that the NHS shouts all the time in their broadcasts, that doesn’t take away from their accuracy and reliability.

This could be a disaster in the making for Central America.  Beta is currently moving very slowly, and over some very warm water.  It could potentially develop into a major hurricane (cat-3 or higher) before making landfall.

Nicaragua and Honduras may receive up to 20 inches of water in their interior mountainous regions, which could cause major flooding and mudslides.
Water temperatures in the southwestern Caribbean, near Tropical Storm Beta

All of the most recent computer models except the UKMET currently have Beta hitting Nicaragua one way or another.  UKMET shows it skipping up towards the Yucatan, but I don’t even want to speculate on what that might mean after the damage Wilma already inflicted on that area.

Jeff at Weather Underground has this to say:

The projected path takes the storm northwest along the coast of El Salvador, potentially adding to the destruction caused by Hurricane Stan earlier this month, which killed 69. Beta may also continue on to affect Guatemala, which suffered the cruelest blow of any nation this destructive hurricane season; between 1500 and 2000 Guatemalans died in floods and mudslides spawned by Hurricane Stan. The threat to El Salvador and Guatemala remains highly speculative at this point, since we are talking about events a week or more in the future.

As he says, there is no way to know exactly where this thing is headed (as we’ve seen all throughout this year).  But it could be a major, major disaster for our Central American cousins.  Landfall is currently being predicted at sometime early on Sunday morning.

Finally, if you were curious about what happens if a hurricane bearing a greek letter designation is to be retired, Jeff doesn’t know for sure either:

There are no provisions for what to do in the event we have to retire Beta’s name and replace it on the list of hurricane names. One possibility is that the storm will be dubbed Beta-2005 and the name Beta will be reused. Another possibilty is that Beta will be skipped over next time the Greek alphabet comes into use.