Hurricane Maria and Jose will impact millions over the next week from the Caribbean to the East Coast.
Jose is expected to bring tropical storm conditions to the portions of the Mid-Atlantic and New England coastlines as it stays just offshore.
Maria is expected to be a major hurricane as it moves through some of the Caribbean islands devastated by Irma, and it could attain category 4 strength before directly impacting Puerto Rico.
There is a bit of uncertainty in Maria’s path beyond Puerto Rico depending on how it interacts with the island’s mountainous terrain. If the circulation gets disrupted significantly, the storm may jog west toward the Gulf. Most computer model forecasts show a different scenario, with the powerful hurricane moving northwest over the Bahamas and eventually threatening the East Coast.
There are currently no tropical threats to the western Gulf of Mexico. Our hurricane season typically ends by mid-October as the strong upper level winds that push down cold fronts also shove storms away from Texas.