HYANNIS – Jose is expected to weaken as its remnants drift slowly out to sea.
The storm is currently 170 miles southeast of Nantucket.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Bill Thompson said that we can still expect some gusty winds, but not much stronger than 35 mph and it will continue to diminish.
“It’s taken a while, but Jose is finally starting to lose its grip,” said Thompson.
The low-pressure system storm has been sitting stationary for the last few days because there have been no surrounding steering currents.
Even as Jose weakens, the wind and sea conditions are making it difficult to resume ferry service between the Cape and Nantucket as trips have been cancelled since Wednesday.
The Steamship Authority cancelled service to and from the island this week, but has resumed service on Saturday, starting with their 6:30 a.m. trip from Hyannis and 9:15 a.m. trip departing Nantucket.
But they still caution that they’re operating on a trip-by-trip basis.
They are also diverting trips to and from Oak Bluffs to Vineyard Haven.
Hy-Line Cruises has also resumed their high-speed ferry service to and from Nantucket, after trips had been cancelled since Wednesday.
They said that they were waiting for more favorable conditions.
Cape Air was forced to ground all flights to the island due to the storm’s wind gusts reaching up to 50 MPH.
With the storm weakening further on Saturday, they’re hoping to resume flights to the island as soon as possible.
The high winds and rain from the storm have also caused a number of power outages across the Cape this week.
A tree fell on power wires on Old Queen Anne Road at Stepping Stones Road overnight in Chatham knocking out power for those in the area.
There were also around 280 Eversource customers without power in Sandwich last night, as wind gusts reached up to 57 MPH in Woods Hole and 53 MPH in Barnstable.
Nearly 400 customers lost power in Harwich yesterday, while more than 1800 in Sandwich and 900 in Brewster, Harwich and Orleans lost theirs on Thursday during the peak of the storm.
There’s some good news with the weather as the forecast calls for the sun to come out on Sunday with milder temperatures.
Thompson said that we still have high surf along our coastline because it takes the waves longer to subside.
There could be a break from the high surf on Sunday, but on Monday it could come back with a swell coming in from the south side from Hurricane Maria.
Forecasters are keeping on Hurricane Maria, but current tracks show that the storm may come close to the outer banks of North Carolina and then make a sharp right turn out to sea.
“There’s certainly time for changes in the track and we’ll continue keep an eye on it but right now it looks like it should past southeast of us,” said Thompson.
Main impacts would still be high surf and dangerous rip currents, but the strongest winds will remain off shore.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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