Jamaica, October 1998 - Hurricane Mitch formed in the southwest Caribbean Sea from a tropical wave about 360 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica late on 21st October. The system initially moved slowly west-ward and intensified into a tropical storm.

Six large fires were burning out of control in Portugal, including one in the northern Alvao natural park which forced the evacuation of seven mountain villages, the civil protection agency said. Emergency services workers and soldiers took some 230 people from the seven villages to a military barrack in the nearby city of Vila Real where they will spend the night, officials said. The blaze has already destroyed four homes and led police to temporarily close a highway linking the northern cities of Chaves and Vila Real, they added.

From 23rd – 24th October, Mitch slowly moved Northward, then North-westward and gradually gained strength, it turned West and became a hurricane.

On 26th October, the central pressure reached a minimum of 905 millibar about 40 miles Southeast of Swan island. This pressure is the fourth lowest ever recorded in an Atlantic hurricane this century.

At its peak intensity, Mitch’s maximum 1-minute sustained surface winds were estimated to be 320 km/h. After passing over Swan Island, Mitch began to gradually weaken (on the 27th) while moving slowly toward the bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. The cyclone centre passed very near the Island of Guanaja and then near the north coast of Honduras (October 29th). It then moved southward and inland over Honduras and Guatemala (on 30th and 31st) weakening to a tropical storm. On 5th November, Mitch became extra tropical and it’s dissipated on the North Atlantic Ocean.

The hurricane has devastated parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, becoming the most destructive Atlantic storm since The Great Hurricane of 1780, blamed for 22,000 deaths in the eastern Caribbean. The death toll in Honduras has risen to almost 7,000 people; another 11,000 are missing and up to 1 million are homeless. In Nicaragua 20 percent of the population are homeless and it will cost an estimated $1 billion, half the nation's annual economic output, to rebuild what was destroyed. The storm's impact on key exports - including coffee, bananas, sugar and peanuts - threatens to set the region's economy back decades, a hardship that will spread to consumers around the world. It has been estimated than 70 percent of the nation's economic output has been lost.

This ERS-2 Wind Scatterometer image shows Hurricane Mitch near the coast of Honduras. The maximum registered wind speed at the time of this image was 115 kts.

The recorded wind speed at the time of this image was 195 mph.

The recorded wind speed at the time of this image was 50 kts.

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