12:00 PM | *Irma now a tropical storm…Jose watch begins*
Paul Dorian
The latest satellite image shows the cloud pattern associated with Tropical Storm Irma and Hurricane Jose (lower, right) now situated over the western Atlantic; image courtesy NOAA, NASA
Irma
At 11am, Irma was moving NNW at 17 mph and classified as a tropical storm with max sustained winds at 65 mph and a central pressure of 975 mb. Irma will move from its current position over north-central Florida into southwestern Georgia and then continue its way on northwest track to western Tennessee. In this location at mid-week, Irma will run into an atmospheric roadblock and tend to stall out and dissipate gradually. While there will not likely be any heavy rain event in the Mid-Atlantic region from the remains of Irma, due to the blocking pattern in the atmosphere, the threat for showers will be rather extended lasting from tomorrow night into the latter part of the week.
Irma weakened as it interacted with northern Cuba early in the weekend and this dropped its classification from a category 5 to 3 in that time period. Once clear of the northern coast of Cuba, Irma regained strength over the warm waters of the Florida Straits and jumped back up to a category 4 classification. It did not, however, ever regain status as a category 5 after its encounter with Cuba. Irma crossed over the Lower Keys as a category 4 hurricane early yesterday and then worked its way up along the west side of Florida and gradually weakening along the way. One of the hardest hit areas was Naples where winds gusted to 142 mph.
Jose
Hurricane Jose is currently classified as a category 2 storm having weakened some from an earlier status as category 4. The current max sustained winds are 105 mph with a central pressure at 968 mb and moving north at 9 mph.
Jose is likely to take an erratic path over the next several days in a looping type of pattern. However, by the end of the week, Jose is likely to begin a more consistent path to the northwest and this it could even strengthen some at this time going over quite warm waters of the western Atlantic. In about 7 to 10 days, there is the possibility that Jose could be a concern for the Mid-Atlantic coastline….stay tuned.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Vencore, Inc.
vencoreweather.com
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