The Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu is tracking Hurricane Madeline, now located about 400 miles east of the Big Island of Hawaii.
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The cyclone is forecast to move through south Georgia, a path that would keep the danger of flooding and tornadoes away from this area, with Columbus near the western fringes of the storm. The forecaster said any shift in the storm’s forecast track could mean it would hit land. Heavy rainfall and tropical storm-force winds should stay contained to the Carolina coastline. “A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Anclote River to Indian Pass”.
The tropical storm warnings include Panama City and Panama City Beach, which are popular resort destinations.
If the storm lingers in the Gulf, however, and is allowed to drift north and west, it could make landfall in the more populated Florida panhandle and would have a little extra time to strengthen as well.
Looking to the Pacific, Hurricane Lester, yet another storm, spun with winds of 120 miles per hour and could eventually impact portions of Hawaii by the Labor Day weekend.
The storm which is forecast to have the most impact on the Tampa Bay region is still a tropical depression as of 11:00 a.m. EST. “This state knows what to do”.
An emergency management official says North Carolina’s Outer Banks were spared from a tropical weather system that had been moving toward the state for two days.
Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson writes in an email that the tropical depression resulted in “no impacts” on areas such as Cape Hatteras.
A hotel manager on Ocracoke Island says residents and tourists experienced less than an inch of rain. Byron Miller, manager of The Ocracoke Harbor Inn, said in a telephone interview that “it’s just a normal day”.
But the rip-current threat extends from North Carolina all the way to Florida and should not be underestimated by swimmers enjoying the last unofficial week of summer before the Labor Day holiday.
Heavy rains were already pounding parts of the state on Wednesday morning.
“The combination of a risky storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline”, it said.
A tropical storm warning for the North Carolina coast was dropped Tuesday night.
Forecasters earlier had anxious the area could get up to 5 inches of rain as the storm passed near the coast.
Heavy rainfall is expected across much of Florida as a tropical depression looms in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Hawaii’s Big Island, residents were warned on Tuesday of an encroaching hurricane expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains.
On the forecast track, the center will approach the coast in the watch area on Thursday. Based on the latest computer model data, the immediate coast could see as much as 4 to 7 inches of rain. The storm was forecast to “pass dangerously close” on Wednesday, prompting the NWS to issue a hurricane warning for the island. That area is also under a hurricane watch.
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As of the 1 p.m. Wednesday update, the storm is moving north at only 2 miles per hour. It’s expected to later curve northeastward. The storm is expected to head in a northwest direction later today and then make a turn to the north-northwest tonight. There is a possibility of life-threatening inundation within the next 48 hours along the Gulf coast of Florida from Aripeka to Indian Pass. But by late Tuesday, many tourists had made a decision to courageous the weather. Large waves also attracted surfers from out of town.
