Hurricane Maria sending high winds, surf up East Coast

The Midlands appears to have dodged another hurricane.

The entire East Coast of the United States will continue to see higher than usual surf along with plenty of rip currents through most of the upcoming week.

But in the next couple days Lee will loop back over the waters it has already turned up and run into some stronger shear causing it to weaken to a category 1 hurricane before dropping to a tropical storm as it moves further to the northeast and runs over the cool north Atlantic waters. Stay with the FOX43 Weather Team on-air and online. “It’s tracking north, northwest through Wednesday morning. That’s expected to happen on Wednesday or Thursday”.

The GOES image also showed Maria is experiencing about 15 knots of southwesterly vertical wind shear, “which is likely the reason for an asymmetric distribution of convection in the eyewall at this time”, said National Hurricane Center forecaster Jack Beven. Right now, it’s 300 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras. “If you’re on the coast, the rip currents and surf will be unsafe”.

Bottom line: What about SC? “Nothing indicates it making landfall in the official forecast”, Liscinsky said.

Despite the fact that Maria is weakening, it remains a large storm.

Meanwhile Hurricane Jose, which is also spinning in the Western Atlantic, is moving northwards along the east coast of the US.

“Early this week, Maria will not be a threat to land”, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said. It is highly unlikely that Maria will get far enough west to swing rain bands this far inland, as much as we would actually need them with increasing dryness. “We could start seeing impacts there and even East Tennessee by mid-week”, said Shea Sorenson.

Not only will the Midlands be spared the impact of major storms, it’s expected to avoid any precipitation this week.

Lifeguards reported 25 water rescues because of rip currents at Wrightsville beach, North Carolina, on Saturday. “There’s no mention of rain this week”.

Friday: Partly sunny, breezy, cooler.

It just won’t be extra windy or wet.

Skies will be mostly cloudy Saturday night, with lows ranging from 71 degrees in Ocala, to 75 in Orlando and Palm Bay.

No part of the Virginia coastline is predicted to face steady, tropical storm-force winds, but gusts could get as high as 30 or 35 miles per hour from Virginia Beach to Chincoteague.

While the past month has been devastating, the 2017 season doesn’t end until November 30 and warm ocean temperatures suggest there are still more storms to come, said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the Colorado State University seasonal hurricane forecast. Winds will be northeast 5 to 10 miles per hour.

TUESDAY: Very warm and humid; sunshine and some clouds.