Hurricane Jose unlikely to strike U.S., forecasters say

Hurricane Jose, still spinning around the western Atlantic Ocean, may avoid the U.S. East Coast once it finally starts to move north next week, forecasters said Tuesday.

As of midday Tuesday, Jose had winds of 75 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said. The center of the storm was located about 450 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk Island and it was moving to the east at 5 mph.

“Some slight weakening is forecast, and Jose could become a tropical storm by tonight,” the hurricane center said. However, it’s expected to regain minimal hurricane strength later this week.

AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski said, “Jose is expected to remain between Bermuda and Hispaniola for the next several days, but then eventually move westward late this week and then more northward this weekend.”

Beyond that, the latest computer models have trended toward taking Jose to the north by early next week — with no U.S. landfall likely, according to Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters. “However, the hurricane is expected to come within a few hundred miles of the Mid-Atlantic U.S. coast, and we must closely monitor this storm.”

He added, “Canada appears more likely than the U.S. to receive a hit from Jose at this point, but it is too early to be a believer in these long-range model forecasts.”

As the storm spins in the Atlantic, rip currents, beach erosion and rough surf are all possible along the East Coast, AccuWeather said.

Large swells should reach the Southeast coast by late Friday. They may spread up the entire Eastern Seaboard as far north as southern New England by the weekend, weather.com warned.