Tropical Storm Sara unleashes torrential rainfall on La Ceiba

According to the Weather Channel Tropical Storm Sara is stalled near the coast of Honduras and may unleash catastrophic flooding and mudslides in parts of Central America through the weekend, but is not a Gulf of Mexico threat.

Sara is stationary near the northern Honduras coast where it's already unleashed torrential rainfall. The city of L​a Ceiba had picked up nearly 3 feet of rain as of late Friday before the station stopped reporting. That has already triggered major flash flooding.

Sara became the 18th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season when it formed Thursday afternoon.

Current Satellite

(The icon shows the current center of the system.)

Alerts issued: Tropical storm warnings have been issued for coastal parts of Central America, as depicted in the map below. A warning means those conditions are expected within 36 hours.

Strength, track in Caribbean: Sara is forecast to be at tropical storm intensity as it slowly tracks near the coast of Honduras during the next few days. It's then expected to move into Belize, then northern Guatemala and eastern Mexico Sunday into Monday.

Sara's lack of a core and proximity to land will keep its intensity relatively in check. The storm is forecast to dissipate after its land passage over Belize and Mexico.

Sara's movement will be slow for a few days while near Central America into the weekend. This crawl will produce additional extreme rainfall with potentially catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Up to 35 inches of rain could fall over parts of northern Honduras. Other parts of Central America from eastern Mexico to Nicaragua could see up to 15 inches of rainfall from Sara.

Sara's land interaction with Central America means it isn't likely to survive that land journey.

The National Hurricane Center forecast shows Sara dissipated by Monday over the Bay of Campeche.

S​ome of Sara's remnant moisture could eventually be drawn ahead of a cold front and could boost rainfall in parts of the Southeast, including Florida, around the middle of next week.

Hurricane season winds down during November, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see storms. This November has already produced Rafael.

In the satellite era – since 1966 – November has produced an average of one storm every one to two years and one hurricane every two to three years.

More often, parts of the Caribbean and Central America have taken hard hits from November hurricanes.