Major Hurricane Maria moved slowly toward the Turks and Caicos on Thursday night.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Hurricane Maria was located at latitude 21.0\u00b0N and longitude 80.2\u00b0W which put it about 65 miles (110 km) east-southeast of the Turks and Caicos.\u00a0 Maria was moving toward the northwest at 8 m.p.h. (13 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 125 m.p.h. (205 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 150 m.p.h. (240 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 955 mb.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Warnings were in effect for the Turks and Caicos, the Southeastern Bahamas and the portion of the coast from Cabo Engano to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Warnings are in effect for portion of the coast from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic to the northern border with Haiti.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Watches are in effect for the Central Bahamas.<\/p>\n
The core of Hurricane Maria reorganized on Thursday as the center moved over the warm water north of the Dominican Republic.\u00a0 A large eye formed at the center of circulation.\u00a0 The eye had a diameter of 40 miles (64 km).\u00a0 A ring of strong thunderstorms surrounded the eye and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0\u00a0 Several bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the core of Hurricane Maria.\u00a0 Crossing over Puerto Rico and an eyewall replacement cycle produced a larger circulation.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extended out about 70 miles (110 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 160 miles (260 km) from the center.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Maria will move through an environment favorable for strong hurricanes.\u00a0 Maria will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 Hurricane Maria will remain in an area where the upper level winds are weak and there is likely to be little vertical wind shear for at least one more day.\u00a0 The outer portion of the southern half of Hurricane Maria’s circulation is still passing over the Dominican Republic.\u00a0\u00a0 Additional friction in the part of the circulation passing over land could reduce the amount of intensification that occurs.\u00a0 Hurricane Maria is likely to strengthen on Friday and it could reach Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Maria is nearing the western end of the subtropical high pressure system which is steering the hurricane toward the northwest.\u00a0 Maria is entering an area where the steering currents are weaker and the motion of the hurricane slowed on Thursday night.\u00a0 The numerical models are still forecasting that Hurricane Maria will turn north on Friday when it rounds the western end of the high pressure system.\u00a0 Hurricane Maria is moving a little farther west than has been forecast and that trend could continue on Friday.\u00a0 If Hurricane Maria does move farther west than anticipated, then the core of Maria could come very close to the Turks and Caicos and parts of the Southeastern Bahamas.<\/p>\n
Even if the center of Hurricane Maria does not pass directly over the Turks and Caicos and Southeastern Bahamas, bands of showers and thunderstorms will bring gusty winds and locally heavy rain.\u00a0 Maria will also cause a storm surge on the coasts of those islands.\u00a0 If the center of Maria passes directly over them, the hurricane is capable of causing major damage.\u00a0 The southern part of Maria’s circulation is bringing heavy rain to parts of the Dominican Republic and there is the potential for flash floods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Major Hurricane Maria moved slowly toward the Turks and Caicos on Thursday night.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Hurricane Maria was located at latitude 21.0\u00b0N and longitude 80.2\u00b0W which put it about 65 miles (110 km) east-southeast of the Turks and Caicos.\u00a0 Maria was moving toward the northwest at 8 m.p.h. […]<\/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":[551,552,144,51,26,830,100,22,97,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872"}],"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=4872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4873,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872\/revisions\/4873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}