'Hurricane Joaquin' changes course... but Ireland should escape the super-storm

Hurricane Joaquin can be seen approaching the Bahamas Credit: NASA

Sarah-Jane Murphy

Super-storm Hurricane Joaquin will be 'substantially weaker' should it cross the Atlantic, Met Eireann said today.

The national forecaster calmed fears that were sparked when UK-based forecasters warned that Hurricane Joaquin may change course and make a bee-line for the UK, crossing Ireland in the meantime.

"The storm is currently in the Caribbean, north of Cuba," forecaster Pat Clarke told Independent.ie.

"It will weaken a lot and morph into storms should it cross the Atlantic.

The superstorm as seen from space Credit: NASA

"It's so far away at the moment.

"Of course we will provide people with plenty of notice should it transpire that it will have an impact on our weather."

Hurricane Joaquin has already wreaked havoc in the Bahamas and is now gathering pace and heading for the east coast of the US.

Latest projections reveal that the super-storm may not make landfall in America and instead travel across the Atlantic heading for the UK, The Exoress Newspaper reported.

An awesome image of Hurricane Joaquin taken from the International Space Station Credit: NASA

Concerned UK weather forecasters have warned that the angry vortex could hit Britain.

Leon Brown, forecaster for the Weather Channel UK, said:

"The latest forecast suggests it will run near the US east coast and past Newfoundland so arriving to our west coast as a large low pressure system at the end of next week and over next weekend."