Hurricane center monitors 2 areas of activity
The National Hurricane Center is watching two areas in the tropics as Jose continued to remain no threat to Florida on Thursday.
A tropical wave 800 miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands had a 20 percent chance of forming into a tropical depression in the next two days and a 60 percent chance of doing so by early next week, the hurricane center said in its 2 p.m. update. It was moving at about 15 mph across the tropical Atlantic Ocean and was producing widespread thunderstorms.
A second tropical wave, between Africa’s west coast and the Cabo Verde Islands, has a 60 percent chance of organizing into a tropical depression in the next two days and a 70 percent chance of such formation over the next five days, the NHC said.
This second wave is expected to move west to west-northwest across the Atlantic at 10-15 mph over the next few days.
Meanwhile, Jose — with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph — was downgraded early Thursday to a tropical storm but was expected to restrengthen into a hurricane by the weekend. Jose could produce lifethreatening rip currents along portions of the U.S. East Coast, according to the hurricane center’s 5 p.m. advisory.
Jose was about 405 miles eastnortheast of the southeastern Bahamas and about 515 miles southsouthwest of Bermuda at 5 p.m.
Jose’s projected path appears to keep it mostly out in the Atlantic, off the U.S. East Coast, although the cone at 5 p.m. did include a tiny sliver of North Carolina’s northeast coastline.