Hurricane Jose: Should Long Island Be Worried?

As the Southeast surveys damage from Hurricane Irma, eyes turn toward Hurricane Jose. Currently a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 100 mph, Jose was located a few hundred miles northeast of Turks and Caicos Monday evening.

Should Long Islanders be worried about Jose? No. Not right now, anyway. There are a few forecast models that show Jose making its way up the East Coast next week and approaching the Tri-State region (most models have it going out to sea), but there's a reason why the National Hurricane Center doesn't forecast a hurricane's path beyond five days out. There's far too much uncertainty to accurately predict where a hurricane is headed 7 to 10 days down the road.

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Nonetheless, we are in the heart of the hurricane season. Two hurricanes just devastated parts of the country, so Long Islanders should definitely be prepared for another one if it happens to come our way.

At the very least, Jose is expected to cause rough surf and potentially dangerous rip currents at local beaches through the weekend, the National Weather Service said in an outlook on hazardous weather for the region.

At one point along Hurricane Jose's complicated course, it is supposed to make a loop south of Bermuda early this week.

It is very possible that a dangerous storm will affect the Bahamas late this week and/or the United States early next week, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private forecasting service Weather Underground.

But he cautions that "Until Jose is farther along on its loop, the models are likely to have large errors, and we should not take too much comfort (or indulge in too much angst) over a particular set of model runs."

On Sunday Hurricane Irma hit Florida with 130 mph winds, flooding streets, cutting power to millions of homes and leaving at least three people dead. By Monday it had been downgraded to a tropical storm and appeared headed toward Atlanta.

The full Long Island forecast:

Monday Night- Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight.

Tuesday- Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.

Tuesday Night- Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. Southwest wind 5 to 9 mph.

Wednesday- A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 79. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.

Wednesday Night- A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph.

Thursday- Partly sunny, with a high near 79.

Thursday Night- A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Friday- A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78.

Friday Night- A 30 percent chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64.

Saturday- A 30 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 76.

Adam Nichols contributed to this report.