A reconnaissance plane found that Tropical Storm Maria had intensified into a hurricane as it moved toward the Leeward Islands on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 At the same time Hurricane Jose moved farther north and Tropical Storm Watches were issued for the coast of the northeastern U.S.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday the center of Hurricane Maria was located at latitude 13.8\u00b0N and longitude 57.5\u00b0W which put it about 275 miles (445 km) east-southeast of Dominica.\u00a0 Maria was moving toward the west-northwest at 15 m.p.h. (24 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 90 m.p.h. (150 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 982 mb.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Warnings were in effect for Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat.\u00a0 Hurricane Watches were in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Islands, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, and Anguilla.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Warnings were in effect for Martinique, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbuda, Saba, and St. Eustatius.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Watches were in effect for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.<\/p>\n
A reconnaissance plane found sustained winds to hurricane force when it investigated Hurricane Maria on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 The plane reported a circular eye with a diameter of 32 miles (52 km) at the center of circulation.\u00a0 The eye was surrounded by an almost complete ring of thunderstorms.\u00a0 The ring was broken south of the center.\u00a0 The strongest winds wind occurring in that ring of thunderstorms.\u00a0 Additional bands of showers and thunderstorms were developing in the eastern half of the circulation.\u00a0 There were fewer showers and thunderstorms in the western half of Maria.\u00a0 Hurricane Maria was generating upper level divergence which was pumping away mass and allowing the surface pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Maria will move through an environment that will be favorable for intensification.\u00a0 Maria will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 An upper level low over Caribbean Sea is causing southern winds which are blowing near the eastern side of Hurricane Maria.\u00a0 Those winds do not appear to be causing significant vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Hurricane Maria is likely to continue to intensify as it moves toward the Leeward Islands.\u00a0 Maria could intensify rapidly once a fully closed eye develops.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Maria is being steered toward the west-northwest by the subtropical high pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean and that general motion is expected to continue for several more days.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Hurricane Maria could reach the Leeward Islands by later on Monday.\u00a0 Maria could be near Puerto Rico by Wednesday.\u00a0 Hurricane Maria will affect some of the same islands damaged by Hurricane Irma a few days ago.\u00a0 Strong winds and heavy rain will significantly impact recovery efforts in those areas.<\/p>\n
A reconnaissance plane also found that Hurricane Jose was stronger on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday the center of Hurricane Jose was located at latitude 31.5\u00b0N and longitude 71.8\u00b0W which put it about 335 miles (535 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.\u00a0 Jose was moving toward the north at 9 m.p.h. (15 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 90 m.p.h. (150 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 105 m.p.h. (170 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 967 mb.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Watches have been issued for the portions of the coast from Fenwick Island, Delaware to Sandy Hook, New Jersey and from East Rockaway Inlet, New York to Plymouth, Massachusetts including Long Island Sound, Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Jose strengthened on Sunday as it moved over water where the Sea Surface Temperature was near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 An eye appeared at times on visible satellite imagery.\u00a0 The circulation of Hurricane Jose increased in size which often happens when hurricanes move north out of the tropics.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extended out about 60 miles (95 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 290 miles (470 km) from the center.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Jose will move through an environment which will be marginal for further intensification.\u00a0 Jose will move over water which is warm enough to support intensification.\u00a0 However, an upper level trough over the eastern U.S. is producing southerly winds which are blowing toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 Those winds are producing strong vertical wind shear and they could weaken Jose during the next several days.\u00a0 Jose will be moving over warm water until it gets north of the Gulf Stream.\u00a0 If the upper level winds slow, then Jose could get stronger.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Jose is being steered northward by the subtropical high over the Atlantic Ocean and the trough over the eastern U.S.\u00a0 On its anticipated track the center of Jose is forecast to move toward the northeastern U.S. and turn toward the east before it reaches the coast.\u00a0 If Jose follows the forecast track, then the core of the hurricane would remain offshore.\u00a0 However, the circulation of Jose is large enough that even if the center stays offshore, there could still be tropical storm force winds along the coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A reconnaissance plane found that Tropical Storm Maria had intensified into a hurricane as it moved toward the Leeward Islands on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 At the same time Hurricane Jose moved farther north and Tropical Storm Watches were issued for the coast of the northeastern U.S.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday the center of Hurricane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[269,551,268,552,829,505,497,144,51,26,808,830,140,504,507,123,206,100,22,506,97,30,804],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4832,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions\/4832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}