Will Hurricane Maria hit the East Coast, affect SC? | Hilton Head Island Packet

What a difference landfall makes. Since making landfall early Wednesday morning in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria has dropped significantly in wind speed, though it is still a major Category 3 hurricane.

As of the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. update, Maria is beginning to move away from the U.S. territory, after it knocked out all power on the island as of Wednesday afternoon, ABC News reports.

Maria is spinning 25 miles north-northwest of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and 75 miles east of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It is moving northwest at 12 mph and has maximum sustained winds of 110 mph with higher gusts. Its sustained winds have dropped by 30 mph since the hurricane center’s 11 a.m. update.

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The current track of the storm sees it turning starkly north into the Atlantic. The degree to which the storm might make landfall on the East Coast of the U.S. is unknown at this time, as the hurricane center’s forecast does not look out that far. However, more speculative models that look further into the future indicate that Maria might likely remain off the coast and turn back to the east as it moves north.

Even if these projections bear out, though, coastal effects are still probable.

“We’re going to definitely have large waves. A lot of swell energy is going to be making it in to the beaches, so we’re almost certainly going to have a high risk of rip currents this weekend,” said Carl Barnes, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. “We’ll probably start to see the swells reaching our shore some time Friday, but Saturday, Sunday and Monday will also see very large waves at the beaches.”

Barnes said that it is likely that small boats will be asked to stay off the seas due to large waves, and that mouths of inlets would be especially rough. Tides will likely be higher as well.

Though the storm has weakened, it is expected to regain its strength as it moves back over water. It might begin that restrengthening process as early as Wednesday evening according to Emily Timte, meteorologist with the weather service in Charleston.

However strong it might get, by Monday Maria should be passing well off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia as it becomes a Category 2 storm, the hurricane center anticipates.

Hurricane warnings for Maria are currently in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra, Vieques, the Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to Puerto Plata, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Southeastern Bahamas.

Hurricane watches are in place for the Dominican Republic from Isla Saona to Cabo Engano.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the Dominican Republic west of Puerto Plata to the northern border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and in the Dominican Republic west of Cabo Engano to Punta Palenque.

Tropical Storm Jose

As Hurricane Maria shreds her way through the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Jose has remained a fixture in the northern Atlantic.

It is currently 145 miles south-southeast of Nantucket, Mass., moving northeast at 8 mph. It has maintained its sustained winds of 70 mph with gusts up to 86 mph, according to the hurricane center’s 11 a.m. update.

Tropical storm warnings associated with Jose are in effect for Woods Hole to Sagamore Beach, including Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts and Block Island in Rhode Island.

Jose has been wandering off the northern East Coast of the U.S. for a good while, and its current projected track shows more of the same as it gradually weakens. It should still just barely be a tropical storm on Monday.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee

Meanwhile, the remnants of what was once Tropical Storm Lee are in the process of reorganizing. They are given a 40 percent chance of reorganizing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days and a 50 percent chance in the next five. Those numbers available at 2 p.m. decreased since the hurricane center’s 11 a.m. update. A new update was not available by 6 p.m.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 3:41 PM.