Otto Is Late and South but Coming

You don’t see the likes of tropical storm/hurricane Otto very often. First of all, he’s a very late-season storm. Even more unusual, he formed very far to the south in the western Caribbean. So far south that Costa Rica, which ‘never gets hit by a tropical storm’, is expected to get hit by its first one in over 150 years. And Panama, which ‘never ever’ gets hit by a tropical storm, is being skimmed by Otto.

Indeed, a tropical storm watch has been posted almost as far south and east as the Panama Canal. And there is a tropical storm warning for the Panama Canal, where lakes and locks are being drained as a precaution, and the San Blas Islands.

While Otto isn’t expected to make landfall until Thursday morning at the Costa Rica/Panama border, heavy rain associated with the storm has already claimed four lives because of extensive flooding. On land, flooding always kills more people than the wind.

Otto is expected to ‘jump’ Central America and hit the Pacific, although as a tropical storm as opposed to a Category 1 hurricane. Everyone on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua needs to get prepared immediately.