ORLANDO, Fla. _ Hurricane Jerry lost more wind speed Friday afternoon with sustained winds decreasing to 80 mph with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was downgraded to a Category 1 storm on Friday morning.
Jerry is moving west-northwest at 18 mph, located about 140 miles north of Barbuda and is expected to dump heavy rains over the Leeward Islands as it passes them Friday night.
"Data from both NOAA and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that Jerry is weakening quickly, and radar images from NOAA show no sign of the eyewall reported on the last mission," the NHC said. "At longer range, a mid-latitude trough interaction should turn the hurricane northward and northeastward, but the models are really struggling on how quickly this occurs."
The storm is expected to pass well north of Puerto Rico by Saturday, but then is projected to take a sharp turn to the north and threaten Bermuda by early next week. It will not threaten Florida.
A tropical storm watch remains in effect for St. Maarten, St. Martin and St. Bathelemy.
Jerry's hurricane-force winds can be felt 15 miles from the center of the storm, and its tropical-storm-force winds can be detected 90 miles from the center.
Meteorologists predict 1 to 3 inches of rainfall with isolated maximums of 4 to 6 inches from Barbuda northwest across St. Maarten, Anguilla and Anegada, the NHC said.
Forecasters expect Jerry to come into contact with a northwestern wind shear this weekend but it remains unclear what Jerry's intensity will be after the interaction.
"In a few days, the aforementioned trough interaction is anticipated, but it is next to impossible to know at this lead time whether the trough will weaken or strengthen the cyclone, so no forecast change is made," the NHC said.
It's five-day track takes it right over Bermuda, which dealt with the effects of Hurricane Humberto this week.
The NHC is also tracking several disturbances in the tropics.
The most recent development involves a disturbance predicted to move off the African coast this weekend. It has a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next five days.
A disturbance in the mid-Atlantic region has a 40% chance of developing into a depression in the next five days, and a 30% chance of doing so in the next 48 hours.
The last disturbance the NHC is watching is in the Caribbean Sea but upper level winds are keeping its odds of development low at 10% in the next two to five days.
