Ophelia Not Likely to Impact Mainland U.S.

Tropical Storm Ophelia is struggling to maintain a solid formation and may degenerate over the next few days, forecasters said late Thursday evening.

Follow the latest updates on Ophelia.

By Monday, the storm will be northwest of Puerto Rico, according to the National Hurricane Center. It is currently 1,000 miles off the coast of the Leeward Islands, according to the Weather Channel.

There are no warnings to any islands, and no forecaster is predicting the storm will make landfall in the mainland United States.

But forecasters say its surprising Ophelia is hanging on despite unfavorable wind conditions, so the storm should be completely discounted.

“You would think that Ophelia would not survive in an environment like this, but it is often hard to tell if systems like this will hang by a thread despite the conditions,” a National Hurricane Center forecaster wrote.

Ophelia is facing strong wind shear, and some forecasts suggest it will die out in a few days, but it could strengthen thereafter when the wind dies out.

“An upper-level trough is positioned just to the west of Ophelia now, which will provide increasing wind shear, likely weakening the system over the next few days,” the Weather Channel forecaster wrote.

“However, it is possible Ophelia may regain some strength early next week if the aforementioned upper-level trough weakens, thereby relaxing wind shear.”

The Weather Channel said a mainland U.S. strike with Ophelia is unlikely, but the storm could impact Bermuda.