Same System Delivering Nice Weather Keeps Hurricane Jose at Bay

(Bloomberg) -- The same high-pressure system that’s delivering nice weather to parts of the U.S. over the next two weeks is also helping keep Hurricane Jose in the Atlantic. This vast area over the Ohio Valley is making it hard for Jose, now a Category 2 storm churning well north of the Dominican Republic, from moving toward the U.S. East Coast.

But what happens to Jose in two weeks? Nobody really knows. The storm’s trajectory is still uncertain --- which means we can’t rule out an East Coast strike yet. The way Shunondo Basu, a meteorologist and analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, puts it: “This isn’t something we want to hype up too early, but it’s something we want to monitor.”

Basu says the intensity of Jose is just as difficult to forecast. Sure, it lost some power on Monday and may weaken more. But the latest forecasts show its winds picking up speed yet again in four days. A lot of that will depend on exactly what part of the Atlantic it drifts into. Right now, it’s in a warm patch that could easily sustain its strength as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane. But temperatures rapidly fluctuate from place to place, and cold waters could break it apart.

--With assistance from Sophie Caronello

To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Doan in San Francisco at ldoan6@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Jim Efstathiou Jr.