Position: 16.8N 84.6W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [315°] near 10 mph [16 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph [135 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb ↓.

Currently about 295 miles [475 km] South-Southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Punta Gruesa northward to Cabo Catoche including Cozumel.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Honduras from Limon eastward to the Honduras-Nicaragua border including the Bay Islands; the coast of Mexico from Chetumal northward to south of Punta Gruesa; and the coast of Mexico from Cabo Catoche to San Felipe.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Belize.

This has been building for days in Caribbean, but wind shear finally dropped allowing it to spin up.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The Republicans have been fighting the appointment of Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve Board claiming he wasn’t qualified.

As Paul Krugman notes Peter Diamond, Dale Mortenson, and Chris Pissarides were just awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Why are the Republicans afraid of having someone who obviously understands economics on the board of the Fed?

It’s the second Monday in October, so it is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Have a happy one.

The US Federal government has decided to call it Columbus Day, even though it should be the 12^th of October which was the second Wednesday in 1492. But it’s okay that the holiday is on the wrong day, because Christopher Columbus [AKA: Cristoforo Colombo, Cristóbal Colón] didn’t find what he was looking for and identified what he did find incorrectly. The important thing is that a large area of the map got changed from “here be dragons and sea serpents,” to “here be gold and cannibals” and no mention was made of the oppressive heat, mosquitoes, or hurricanes.

[Read more →]