Hurricane Lisa Makes Landfall Along Central American Coast As A Category 1 Storm

Lisa strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane with winds sustaining around 85 mph before making landfall Wednesday, Nov. 2, near Belize City.

Over the next couple of days, Lisa is expected to travel inland across Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico, posing serious dangers from life-threatening storm surges, devastating winds, and flash flooding.

Lisa was located near Belize as of late Wednesday and was moving slowly westward.

Due to the terrain and land interaction, Lisa continues to slowly degrade and is no longer a strong Category 1 hurricane.

As Lisa moves westward across Central America, the FOX Forecast Center anticipates that it will continue to weaken. This course indicates that by Thursday, Nov. 3 it will have crossed northern Guatemala and moved into southeast Mexico.

Hurricane Lisa will not pose any threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast even though the track takes a weakened tropical depression into the warm Bay of Campeche for the weekend. Lisa will remain restrained to the south until it disintegrates by early Monday, Nov. 7 thanks to a cold front sweeping into the Gulf of Mexico.

“Expect it to weaken some over land – of course, we’re going to be dealing with the impacts of that friction, and it’s going to be raining itself out – but potentially emerging back into the southern Bay of Campeche,” FOX Weather meteorologist Jane Minar said. “We’ll have to watch it closely, but right now, the dynamics over the U.S. mean no concerns are expected. It’s not raising any red flags there.”

According to the FOX Forecast Center, Lisa is expected to produce 4 to 6 inches of rain across parts of Belize and northern Guatemala, as well as portions of the Mexican states of Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, and Veracruz. Localized areas could see up to 10 inches of rainfall.

The far southeastern portion of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, the Bay Islands of Honduras, central Guatemala, and south-central Campeche state in Mexico could see 2 to 4 inches of rain.

These regions along Lisa's course, particularly Belize and northern Guatemala, the extreme southeast of the Yucatán Peninsula, and parts of the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, and Veracruz, might see flash flooding as a result of the heavy rainfall.