Tropical Storm “Ophelia” to become a hurricane as it heads toward Azores

Tropical Storm "Ophelia" formed west-southwest of the Azores islands around 09:00 UTC on October 9, 2017 as the 15^th named storm of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm is now getting better organized and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, 10^th of the season, on October 12 as it heads toward the Azores.

As of 15:00 UTC (11:00 AST) on October 10, the center of Tropical Storm "Ophelia" was located about 1 260 km (780 miles) WSW of the Azores. It had maximum sustained winds of 85 km/h (50 mph), minimum estimated central pressure of 1 002 hPa and was moving SE at 7 km/h (5 mph). This general motion is expected to continue over the next day or two.

Gradual strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Ophelia is expected to become a hurricane by Thursday.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 110 km (70 miles) from the center.

There are currently no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

According to Dr. Philip Klotzbach, Ophelia's formation longitude of 39.9°W is the farthest east formation longitude for an October Atlantic named storm since Grace of 2009.

NOAA GOES-East image of North Atlantic at 17:45 UTC on October 10, 2017. Credit: UW-CIMSS

Teo Blašković

Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.

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