Hurricane Maria to slam Caribbean islands. Here’s what that means for the South Carolina coast
Here we go again — another week in the relentless 2017 hurricane season with another monstrous hurricane pummeling the Caribbean that threatens the East Coast.
As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, Category 5 Hurricane Maria was spinning toward the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph about 70 miles southeast of St. Croix and 165 miles southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane center warns people in the area to prepare for life-threatening storm surge, rainfall, flooding and destructive winds.
Since the 5 p.m. update from the hurricane center, Maria’s maximum sustained winds have picked up by a solid 10 mph. Wind gusts of up to 63 mph were already being reported in St. Croix in the early evening.
Maria continues to move west-northwest at about 10 mph. The storm’s eye will move over the northeastern Caribbean on Tuesday and approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Wednesday. It is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous Category 4 or 5 hurricane.
Tropical weather track
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Source: National Hurricane Center
Where will Maria go?
The hurricane center’s five-day projections have Maria moving near the northeastern Bahamas, parallel to southern Florida, as a hurricane by Sunday morning.
Latest Caribbean view by satellite
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Source: National Hurricane Center
Carl Barnes, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, said it’s too early to pin down how Maria will affect the South Carolina coast, but the forecast tracks look much better than Irma at this point.
“The vast majority of our models have it staying well off the coast, which is good,” Barnes said. “But it is still early, about a week away before it would come near the (Lowcountry) coast.”
Barnes said a high pressure system and weak steering currents in the models are keeping the storm away from South Carolina.
“A lot could change in the forecast, but right now Maria’s closest approach to the East Coast would be in the Cape Hatteras, N.C., area,” Barnes said.
When will Maria affect the Lowcountry?
Maria is expected to continue to head northwest into early next week and then continue north after Sunday.
“This is a lot different from Irma,” he said. “Maria is not expected to make that major sharp turn like Irma did that left so much in the air. The biggest thing that’s hurting confidence right now is time.”
The most recent models show Maria moving northwest off Lowcountry shores next Monday night to Tuesday morning.
“At the very least, we know we will get rough surf conditions, rip currents and possibly gusty winds,” Barnes said. “At this point, beachgoers and mariners will be affected the most.”
Maria’s wrath so far
Maria made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in Dominica Monday evening and is on track to make landfall in Puerto Rico later this week, AccuWeather reports.
Maria was the first storm to make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in Dominica.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The reports from Dominica tonight are about as bad as you would expect, unfortunately. <a href="#Maria</a>" name="spellmarker567" style="border-bottom-width:2px; border-bottom-style:dotted; border-bottom-color:red">#Maria</a>" name="spellmarker754" style="border-bottom-width:2px; border-bottom-style:dotted; border-bottom-color:red">https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maria?src=hash">#Maria</a> <a href="https://t.co/tFAsH3F4Ud">pic.twitter.com/tFAsH3F4Ud</a></p>— Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericfisher/status/909975283872276480">September 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Early Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said on Facebook that Dominica had “lost all what money can buy and replace.”
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Hurricane warnings are in effect for Guadeloupe, Dominica, Puerto Rico, and several other islands in the area. Hurricane conditions will continue to spread throughout portions of the hurricane warning area in the Leeward Islands and will spread to the remainder of the hurricane warning area later Tuesday and Wednesday, the hurricane center reports.
This story was originally published September 19, 2017 at 9:41 PM with the headline "Hurricane Maria to slam Caribbean islands. Here’s what that means for the South Carolina coast."