Hurricane MARIA - 17 Sep 2017 1630Z - Location: 13.6 N - 578.0 W - Winds: 65 knots - Central Pressure: 986mb
Hurricane MARIA will likely curve northward after hitting Puerto Rico

Image courtesy of US Naval Research Lab

Haiti will be threatened by Hurricane MARIA this Friday

Sunday Sep 17 - The official forecast track can change significantly over the next 24 hours. The wind radii of the ATCF chart expects a low chance that Haiti will see significant wind

HaitiAction.net - Tabarre, Haiti -Hurricane MARIA will cause even more devastation to the battered Leeward Islands with a direct hit on Puerto Rico. The north coast of the Dominican Republic should see Category 3 winds — over 111 MPH. As the most damaging winds of an Atlantic Hurricane are in the NorthEast quadrant, even the abandoned Island of Barbuda will be heavily impacted once again. With the current forecast track Haiti should see one more “near-miss” of storm force winds but heavy rains will drench the country causing more dangerous flash floods and landslides seen during Hurricane IRMA ten days ago.

The current heading is WNW (293º) at 13mph and is just developing into a Category 1 hurricane. MARIA should be affected by the trough created by Hurricane JOSE and start curving more northward after leaving Puerto Rico, quickly strengthening into a Cat 3 hurricane. However there is likelihood that MARIA will come closer to the East Coast of the USA than JOSE and possibly hit Miami. The models should show that track clearer in the next couple of days.

The later season hurricanes are rather unpredictable and can make surprising changes to the track, so Haiti would be advised to make preparations as if the storm could appear anywhere over the country. The shaded area of the ATCF chart confirms that possibility. Haiti should also track the development of Tropical Storm LEE which will arrive the following week.

"They Call the Wind Maria"

The naming of this storm provides some interesting history of the naming of storms and a controversy over the actual pronunciation of the name.

A George Rippey Stewart novel — Storm — published in 1941 was a best-seller and led to tropical cyclones around the world being given woman’s names. It was an incredible account of a cyclone traveling backwards across the Pacific and developing into a blizzard over the Sierra Nevada range The storm was given the name “MARIA” by a Junior Meteorologist. That account also inspired the western tune, a Lerner and Loewe song "They Call the Wind Maria", performed in the musical “Paint Your Wagon” which became a big hit.

For the latest updates the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida will have the latest updates in the English language. For French (why not Kreyol?) go to Haiti’s own Centre national de météorologie. For Spanish, Cuba’s own INSMET site is best

HaitiAction.net has a Tropical Cyclone page that link to all of these resources and many more. No pop-up advertising to waste your time and no clickbait links to get you distracted. If you want to donate to our work, many in Haiti thank you in advance.

HaitiAction.net will closely monitor the development of these conditions and provide an update on this page if needed.

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View the latest observations near BERYL

HaitiAction.net will be tracking the progress of this storm. For the latest official updates, go to the Centre National de Météorologie (CNM) web page Many forecast and tracking resources can be found on the Tropical Cyclone page at HaitiAction.net

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Haiti will be threatened by Hurricane MARIA this Friday

BOOKMARK Haiti Action.net Tropical Cyclone Page For Hurricane Season resources and updates

BOOKMARK Haiti Action.net Tropical Cyclone Page
For Hurricane Season resources and updates