Tropical Storm Beta is expected to reach hurricane force by noon today, and reach Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast by Sunday as a Strength 2 or 3 hurricane (wind speads of 154-209 km/hr).
Beta is the 23rd named storm this year, in the most intense tropic storm season ever recorded.
It is expected to cause the overflow of rivers, flooding and landslides. President Bolaņos has assured that the scenes of Hurricane Mitch, which in 1998 left about 3000 dead in Nicaragua, will not be repeated thanks to a better system of defense (known as Sinapred) against natural disasters in Latin America. In any case, meteorologists have assured that Beta has less destructive characteristics than Mitch.
Nicaraguan meteorologists predict that upon landfall, the hurricane will weaken and it will decrease in intensity to the point of becoming a tropical storm in Northern Nicaragua. It will then decay into a tropical depression, before leaving the country on the Pacific Coast some 48 hours after entry, somewhere between the north-western city of Chinandega and the Gulf of Fonseca.
In the meantime, the US National Hurricane Center's 5 day track predicts that Beta will continue after reaching Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast on a track into Honduras, to pass between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula between Tuesday and Wednesday.