23 September, 2017
The BBC News said Hurricane Maria left power outages throughout Puerto Rico while dumping enough rain to cause "catastrophic" flooding on the island. Thankfully, the center of the storm looks to remain over water while it continues to move past the Bahamas.
We will need to watch Maria for interests along the East Coast next week.
As of 11AM EDT Hurricane Maria was located about 55 miles N of Grand Turk Island, moving NW at 7kts. It has a minimum central barometric pressure of 28.32 inches.
If this system becomes a tropical storm, it would be named Nate.
Maria's eye is less visible on satellite images this morning, however reconnaissance data indicates the storm has not weakened according to the NHC. Now downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour, Maria is expected to continue north and to be roughly due east of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina by Wednesday morning. Stay tuned to latest forecasts updates on Maria's path over the next few days.
Solid swell from Maria is rising on the NE Bahamas buoy today.
The track is similar to other models before Maria hit the US island USA territory, showing that the storm would spare Florida, which was recently ravaged by Hurricane Irma.
By early next week, Maria is expected to maintain hurricane strength while lifting northward.
By Tuesday, the latest forecast cone puts Maria off the coast of the Carolinas.
There are some indications of a change to a cooler pattern around the end of next week.
The National Hurricane Center forecast cone that we show on WECT products is the official and best resource for storm intensity and track information.
