Tropical Storm Hanna strengthens into Atlantic’s first hurricane of 2020

As Tropical Storm Hanna continues to close in on Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, the storm system got stronger Saturday morning and was upgraded to Hurricane Hanna — becoming the first hurricane of the year in the Atlantic hurricane basin.

Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center said Hanna is now packing top sustained winds of 75 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane as it treks west in the northern Gulf, taking aim at the southeastern coast of Texas.

As of 8 a.m. Saturday, the center of Hanna was swirling about 90 miles east-northeast of Port Mansfield, Texas and about 100 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. The hurricane was moving west at a pace of 9 mph.

“On the forecast track, the center of Hanna should make landfall along the Texas coast within the hurricane warning area this afternoon or early this evening,” the advisory says. “A gradual turn toward the west-southwest is expected by tonight and that motion should continue through Sunday.”

Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles from Hanna’s center.

In addition to generating a dangerous storm surge, Hurricane Hanna could dump as much as 6 to 12 inches of rain — with isolated pockets of up to 18 inches — in southern Texas and in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and northern Tamaulipas through Sunday night, forecasters said.

“This rain may result in life-threatening flash flooding, rapid rises on small streams, and isolated minor to moderate river flooding in south Texas,” the National Hurricane Center said. In addition, the hurricane is expected to drop 3 to 5 inches of rain along the upper Texas and Louisiana coasts.

Forecasters are also monitoring Tropical Storm Gonzalo, which originally was expected to become a hurricane but was weakened by pockets of dry air. Gonzalo currently has top sustained winds of 40 mph and is forecast to move across the southern Windward Islands Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening and over the southeastern Caribbean Sea on Sunday.

Both Gonzalo and Hanna made history when they formed — becoming the earliest “G” storm and earliest “H” storm on record in the Atlantic. On average, it takes until mid-September for the seventh and eighth named storms to develop.

Prior to Hanna, the earliest “H” storm was Tropical Storm Harvey, which formed on Aug. 3 in 2005.

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Len Melisurgo may be reached at [email protected].