Tropical Storm Jose Moving On, Eyes Shift To Hurricane Maria/2017

Tropical Storm Jose Moving On, Eyes Shift To Hurricane Maria/2017



tropical storm Jose is moving off with little impact but some rain and wind in Connecticut. Now, forecasters say they are watching Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm lashing Puerto Rico.



By Wednesday, any effects from Jose were limited to choppy, rough water and some lingering clouds and wind. Fox 61 meteorologist Matt Scott said Jose behaved as expected and the impact was minimal.



He did caution that boaters should continue to expect to see some rough seas. On Wednesday, the Block Island Ferry canceled all its trips. “Boaters definitely have to watch out,” Scott said.



Through Tuesday into Wednesday, the electric utilities in the state reported few, if any, outages related to Jose. During that time parts of the shoreline were under a tropical storm watch issued by the National Weather Service that predicted potential heavy rain and strong winds, as well as some flooding.



With that threat ending, meteorologist will be watching Hurricane Maria, but it is too soon to tell what impact the storm could have on Connecticut.



“Maria is the latest in a very active, peak hurricane season,” Scott said. The public’s attention in recent weeks has been on storms including Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. “This is prime time for hurricanes.”



He said it is not surprising to see these strong storms during this time of year, but it is disheartening to see the same islands get hit.



“What is shocking to us now is we are seeing damage done to islands that have been decimated” by recent hurricanes, Scott said.



With this latest storm, the state’s Puerto Rican community was paying close attention, concerned for friends and loved ones still there.



“It’s just: Hunker down and pray, a lot of praying,” said Cinthia Cotto, who moved to Puerto Rico from Hartford earlier this month to care for her aging parents. “Everybody’s been boarding up their windows. The neighbor next door chopped down a tree that was close to the power line.”



Those with homes in Florida can rest easy with current tracking showing the storm staying well east of the state. After that, long-range predictions, called spaghetti models, show a number of possibilities including landfall further north or a path further out into the Atlantic Ocean.



“Long-range models take [Maria] a variety of directions including New England,” Scott said. “That doesn’t mean it is coming for us. That means we are watching it.”



Scott said it will come into clearer focus next week, and any potential impact would be more than a week and a half away. The storm, currently with winds as high as 140 miles per hour, is moving north at 10 miles per hour.



“It’s way to early to tell, [but] it is never too early to model,” Scott said.