Celia first Hurricane of 2010 season

The National Hurricane Center updgraded Celia to a hurricane last evening, making her the first hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic/Eastern Pacific season. Celia is the western convective system in the above IR satellite image. She is forecast to move generally westward and to intensify gradually.

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I also note that the ECMWF forecast from last evening (0000 UTC 21 Jun 2010) is forecasting that a tropical storm or hurricane will be moving into the Gulf of Mexico at 168 hours. If this threat were to actually materialize it would trigger a media hurricane, in addition to the storm's impact on the industrial disaster situation in the Gulf.