Hurricane Irma, Jose, and Katia on 9/7/17

Hurricane Irma is a Category 5. Hurricane Jose is a Category 3. Hurricane Katia is a Category 1. The Atlantic is active with Irma being the focus. The Irma track forecast into the weekend looks like it will keep us on the dry, calmer side of the storm but it won’t be calm for much of Florida. Most computer projections show a trough of low pressure arriving from the northwest this weekend to turn Irma toward the north. That means all of south and central Florida is a likely target.

The odds of Irma heading to the News 5 area remain low. Be prepared as you would normally be during hurricane season. By the weekend, we’ll have a better idea of where Irma may go with regard to where we are. It’s over the weekend that we’ll find out when it turns. At the moment we stay on the dry side of Irma, with a northeast breeze this weekend.

Jose is a category 3. That makes it the third major hurricane of the season. It is 1200 miles east of Irma in open waters. It may strengthen more and may also impact the northeastern islands of the Caribbean, before turning northward in the Atlantic and meandering for several days.

In the southwestern Gulf is Hurricane Katia. It will drift southwestward to move into Mexico as a hurricane and rainmaker.

There have been 3 named storms at the same time in the Atlantic before.

The state of the atmosphere can change drastically by then so we watch daily to see what clues models are giving us. That’s why you always have to have a plan, in hurricane season, which runs through November.

WKRG-TV Chief Meteorologist, Alan Sealls