Hurricane Lorenzo hits Azores, heads towards Ireland

October 2, 2019 Today, as hit the Azores,, the national meteorological service for Ireland, issued weather alerts as the storm approached from the west. Yellow warnings were issued nationwide, while six counties on the coast received orange warnings. The warnings apply from tomorrow night into Friday morning.

The Azores &mdash; autonomous islands of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean &mdash; closed schools and non-essential public services. "The situation will worsen in the next few hours", said, the regional president, as the storm bore down on the Azores. Authorities expected winds of 100 (about 160 ) and high waves.

The orange warning issued by Met Éireann applied to, , , , and  and starts at 6 p.m. local time (1700 UTC) tomorrow. Though Lorenzo was forecast to diminish from a hurricane to a, gusts of wind were forecast to reach 60–80 mph (about 95–130 km/h). "Storm Lorenzo will produce significant swell, high waves and sizeable storm surges. This will lead to wave overtopping, some coastal flooding and damage, especially along western and southern coasts", read the warning. The warnings called for force winds and heavy rain.

Hurricane Lorenzo reached Category 5 on the this past Saturday, but was downgraded to Category 1 as of this morning. According to reports, Lorenzo is the largest and strongest tropical cyclone to reach this far into the northeastern Atlantic in recorded history.