Where is Irma now?

As of 12:00 am yesterday, Irma was located about 1,220 miles east of the Leeward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The storm remained too far from any land, so no coastal warnings were in effect.

Where is it headed?

Irma was moving west at 15 mph, and had a maximum central pressure of 973 millibars. The storm had begun veering slightly south yesterday and was expected to remain moving southwest as it’s pushed by a mass of dry air to its north.

But then Irma is expected to move back up in a northwest direction, threatening the Lesser Antilles and possibly Puerto Rico by the middle of next week.

How strong will it become?

Irma has fluctuated in strength in the last 36 hours, downgrading from Category Three to Category Two overnight. But forecasters said such fluctuations in the storm’s power are expected to continue “for about another day while Irma remains over marginally warm waters and in fairly close proximity to dry air”.

That won’t last long. Irma is expected to strengthen again to a major hurricane — Category Three or higher — by today or early next week, when it is expected to “move over progressively warmer waters and into a moister environment”, forecasters said.

Most models are forecasting Irma to return to Category Three, though a few project the storm to eventually become an extremely dangerous Category Four.

Irma was moving west at 15 mph and had a maximum central pressure of 973 millibars. The storm had begun veering slightly south Saturday and was expected to remain moving southwest as it’s pushed by a mass of dry air to its north.

But then Irma is expected to move back up in a northwest direction, threatening the Lesser Antilles and possibly Puerto Rico by the middle of next week.

How strong are the storm’s winds?

Even though Irma was clocking maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, the National Hurricane Center said it’s small in size, with tropical-storm-force winds extending only about 69 miles from its centre. A ship that passed within 50 nautical miles to the west of the centre of Irma early Saturday reported winds of only about 46 mph, “indicating that the core of Irma is compact”, forecasters said.

Information provided by the National Hurricane Center located in Miami, Florida, USA