Hurricane hunters flew into the Matthew Thursday afternoon and found sustained winds up to 75 miles per hour, making Matthew the fourth hurricane of the 2016 season.
As of 2 pm Thursday, Matthew was located 190 miles northeast of Curacao, and moving west at 17 mph.
After two days moving west over the warm waters of the Caribbean, Hurricane Matthew is expected to turn to the northwest Saturday, and head toward Jamaica Sunday. It could be on Cuba’s doorstep Monday as a Category 2 storm. The system’s trajectory beyond this point still remains somewhat uncertain.
The current consensus among most reliable forecast models is for Matthew to track just east of Florida. However, all Floridians are encouraged to stay vigilant in their awareness and preparations. The National Hurricane Center said it best:
“The average NHC track errors at days 4 and 5 are on the order of 180 and 240 miles, respectively. It is too early to determine what, if any, impacts could occur on either the U.S. Gulf or Atlantic coasts.”
Any impacts from Hurricane Matthew to the United States or Florida would occur around the middle or end of next week.
