There are 3 named storms in the Atlantic, but Hurricane Maria is the one to watch
The Atlantic hurricane season continues at a brisk pace, with three named storms — Hurricane Jose, Hurricane Maria, and Tropical Depression Lee — all spinning as of Sunday evening.
While Hurricane Jose will produce heavy rains, high winds, and dangerous waves for some immediate coastal areas of southeastern New England and the Mid-Atlantic, the storm with the potential to do the most damage is Hurricane Maria.
Maria is taking aim at some of the same areas hit hard by Hurricane Irma a little more than one week ago, with hurricane warnings in effect for Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, as well as Martinique.
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Hurricane watches extend from the U.S. and British Virgin Islands to areas just east of Puerto Rico. The storm is forecast to move west-northwest, on a track that will take the storm across the Leeward Islands Monday night and over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea on Tuesday.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami has the storm near or over Puerto Rico as a Category 3 or 4 storm on Wednesday, then near the Dominican Republic on Thursday, followed by a threat to the Bahamas through the end of the week.
Image: U. Albany/brian tang
Many of the areas threatened by Maria will struggle to cope with even a weak hurricane right now after Category 5 Hurricane Irma shredded parts of the northern Leeward Islands, leaving Barbuda entirely unpopulated and St. Thomas and St. John facing a long road to recovery.
Hurricane Irma did not make landfall in Puerto Rico, but it did knock out power to much of the island, and another storm — especially a direct hit, like what is currently forecast — would do far worse damage there.
Computer models are projecting that the storm could turn north after moving near the Bahamas, sparing Florida from another hurricane, but threatening the Carolinas or other parts of the East Coast. It's possible that Hurricane Maria will curve out to sea without making landfall in the lower 48 states, but since that is still a long-range forecast, there's a lot of uncertainty with it.
Statistically, we're right at the typical seasonal peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, but powerful storms are possible through the official end of the season on Nov. 30, and even beyond that, if this were to turn into a blockbuster year.
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