Tropical storm Bonnie named and heading for Central America

The second named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season has just been named, with tropical storm Bonnie now heading for Central America and expected to impact Costa Rica and Nicaragua tonight.

Tropical storm Bonnie formed out of a depression that has been tracking along the northern coast of South America, having missed the Caribbean and tracked further south as a strong Bermuda high dictated its course.

Now, the National Hurricane Center has officially named tropical storm Bonnie, which it says has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and higher gusts.

Tropical storm Bonnie is expected to strengthen on approach to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, perhaps reaching strong tropical storm strength before making landfall.

Bonnie is then forecast to cross Central America and emerge into the eastern Pacific ocean where conditions are expected to be conducive to intensification and the tropical storm may then be renamed due to being in a different basin.

From there, the hurricane forecast models are in agreement that tropical storm Bonnie, or whatever it gets named in the Pacific, will intensify further and may reach hurricane strength as it tracks north west along the coast of Mexico.

We’ll update you next week should there be any threat of a significant landfall risk to Mexico and you can track the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season on our dedicated page.