Jose: It’s still out there, though the forecast is very uncertain.
After two, back-to-back Category 4 hurricanes — Harvey and Irma — hitting the US, here’s an unsettling thought: We could be hit by another one.
Hurricane Jose, which formed while Irma was reaching peak intensity last week, is puttering along in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles away from Turks and Caicos. After grazing by the Leeward islands in the Caribbean, it’s expected to finish a full clockwise loop in the open ocean.
But by Friday, it’s expected to break out of its spin and begin heading north, northwestward, raising the possibility of an East Coast landfall sometime next week.
“After that time [when it moves out of its spin] , the confidence in the forecast decreases as the guidance diverges significantly, ” the National Hurricane Center reported Tuesday.
Currently Jose has 75 mph sustained winds, making it a Category 1 storm. (It encountered some wind shear — high atmosphere winds that blow the tops of storms — that weakened it from its max Category 4 intensity on Sunday.)
Later next week, it could impact the Bahamas, the East Coast of the US, or it could turn back into the sea. It’s too early to tell. It’s wind speeds are expected to wax and wane as well.
So stay on top of the forecasts. After all, we’ re in peak hurricane season, where the ocean temperatures are as warm as they get for the entire year. It’s not surprising to see so many storms form this time of year. If anything, it’s weird that the US hasn’ t more hurricanes in the past 10 years, as the Washington Post explains.
