Jose remains a dangerous category 4 hurricane in Atlantic

Saturday, September 9, 2017, 5:50 PM - While all eyes are on the monster storm that is Irma, another major hurricane is working its way along part of Irma's path.  

The eye of Hurricane Jose passed north of the northern Leeward Islands on Saturday afternoon, raking past islands that were, in some cases, devastated by Irma's passage late last week.

By early Saturday evening, Jose was a powerful category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 230 km/h, situated about 135 km north-northeast of the northern Leewards.

As of 8 p.m. Saturday, the hurricane was moving northwest at about 22 km/h, and was expected to continue this track for the next two days.

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Hurricane warnings have been downgraded to tropical storm warnings for Sint Maarten and St. Martin (Dutch and French possessions that share one island), St. Barthelemy. Other hurricane and tropical storm warnings were discontinued through the day on Saturday as the storm started to pull away from land.

The forecast track for Jose curves the storm back toward the central Atlantic into the middle of next week, and the National Hurricane Center expects the storm to gradually weaken over the next few days as it moves into a less-favourable environment.

Although a direct hit to the islands isn’t expected for now, that doesn’t mean they won’t feel the impacts of Jose. High winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surge impacted portions of the islands, including Barbuda, where some reports suggest up to 95 per cent of structures were damaged or destroyed by Irma's passage.

As the storm moves away to the north, only about an inch of additional rainfall is expected on Anguilla, however, this rainfall will serve to maintain any ongoing flooding stirred up by Irma.

After the weekend, Jose is expected to remain out over the Atlantic and for now looks to pose no immediate threat to the eastern U.S. or Atlantic Canada. Jose may be near Bermuda, but latest guidance also shows no direct impact to the island through to mid-next week.

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With files from Brad Rousseau and Erin Wenckstern.