Hurricane Jose: Still too early to determine risk to S. Florida

There’s there.

Hurricane Jose, a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph, is on a path that theoretically could bring it near the Bahamas by Saturday. It’s too soon to tell if South Florida could be hit, although the center of the five-day forecast cone currently points more toward northern Florida, Georgia or South Carolina — if it even remains a hurricane.

“It is not forecast to come to South Florida,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Larry Kelly. “The official forecast keeps another one out it out over the Atlantic as a hurricane over the next five days. We’ll continue to watch it.”

At 8 p.m. Monday, the storm was “a fairly amorphous blob of intermittent, bursting convection” more than 360 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk Island, near the southeast of the tip of the Bahamas. The storm is forecast to make a bizarre clockwise loop over the next few days before straightening out and heading toward the southeastern United States.

Unlike Irma, which became a monster Category 5 hurricane over the ocean with near-record winds, Jose is not forecast to become a major hurricane this week — it is expected to cross its own wake, which will decrease its chance of strengthening, although it will retain hurricane strength. It is forecast to weaken to Category 1 strength in a few days, with winds between 75 and 90 mph.

Forecasters were reluctant late Monday afternoon to predict the storm’s intensity or threat to the mainland beyond Saturday. “We want everyone to concentrate on recovering from Irma,” Kelly said.

Staff writer Rafael Olmeda contributed to this report.

dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4535

NOAA-NASA GOES PROJECT/HANDOUT A satellite image shows Hurricane Jose, right, spinning in the Atlantic on Monday afternoon as Hurricane Irma moves through northern Florida and into southersn Georgia.