Hurricane Maria Not Expected To Make U.S. Landfall

Storm To Be Between Bermuda & North Carolina On Tuesday

After ravaging the Caribbean – St. Croix and Puerto Rico in particular, as well as Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic – Hurricane Maria is headed out to sea and is unlikely to make landfall in the U.S.

This is good news for several states including Florida, which sustained heavy rains and flooding from the recent landfall of Hurricane Irma.

“Maria should be steered on a general northerly course this weekend into the start of next week,”AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said. “This northerly path is likely to be followed by a northeasterly turn.”

While some westward movement is still expected of the hurricane into next week, a slightly curved path should roughly bring the core of Maria about halfway between Bermuda and North Carolina on Tuesday.

During the middle to latter part of next week, steering winds may weaken enough to slow the forward speed of Maria. It is during this time when Maria may attempt to drift farther west and may cause some rain and gusty winds to reach the North Carolina Outer Banks.

However, a non-tropical storm will bring showers and thunderstorms to the mid-Atlantic and New England later next week.

“It is this non-tropical storm that is most likely to help sweep Maria on a northeasterly path late next week,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Evan Duffey.

“Only if that non-tropical storm is slow to reach the Eastern states would the hurricane have a greater chance of being pulled into the mid-Atlantic states or New England.”

Maria to bring dangerous surf, hazardous seas along Atlantic Seaboard

Even if Maria takes the most likely path just offshore of the U.S., seas, surf and rip currents will increase from south to north along the Atlantic Seaboard this weekend through next week.