Hurricane Maria 175 Mph Category 5 Nearing St Croix Puerto Rico

Unless something radically changes, Hurricane Maria will head through the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico ever to hit the area. Maria is a category 5 hurricane with winds of 175 mph. It appears that an eyewall replacement cycle is underway and that could cause the strength to fluctuate a bit until the eye wall replacement cycle ends. That would be the only thing that might weaken Maria a little but that is all it will be. Radar now shows the eye in view as Maria is now about 50 miles southeast of Saint Croix.

SATELLITE LOOP

..900 PM AST POSITION AND INTENSITY UPDATE…
…EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE MARIA APPROACHING ST.
CROIX…

A wind gust to 72 mph (117 km/h) was recently reported in the
eastern portion of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

SUMMARY OF 900 PM AST…0100 UTC…INFORMATION
—————————————————
LOCATION…17.1N 64.4W
ABOUT 50 MI…80 KM SSE OF ST. CROIX
ABOUT 145 MI…230 KM SE OF SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…175 MPH…280 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT…WNW OR 300 DEGREES AT 10 MPH…17 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…909 MB…26.84 INCHES

Model track guidance shows all the models but 1 take Maria over the entire island of Puerto Rico with a close pass to the Dominican Republic but staying just to the north of the DR. Models then seem to shift northward with a pass close to the southeastern Bahamas. The longer term remains highly uncertain.

FiOS1 News Weather Forecast For Long Island

FiOS1 News Weather Forecast For New Jersey

FiOS1 News Weather Forecast For Hudson Valley