Tropical Depression Nine is forecast to strengthen to Tropical Hermine later Wednesday, making landfall along the Florida Gulf Coast Thursday evening. On the forecast track, the center of the tropical cyclone will approach the northwest Florida coast in the warning area on Thursday afternoon. The storm was expected to drop back down to a tropical storm before pushing into Georgia, the Carolinas and up the East Coast with the potential for heavy rain and deadly flooding.
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On Hawaii’s Big Island, residents were warned that Madeline, although weakening with sustained winds of about 75 miles per hour (120 kph) at 11 a.m. local time, could dump as much as 15 inches (40 cm) of rain. Tornadoes could also occur, mainly in central Florida.
Once in the open Atlantic Ocean, the storm system could return and near the coast of the northeast United States – threatening Rhode Island and MA.
As of 8 p.m., Hermine was at 50 miles per hour and moving north-northeast at 8 miles per hour. That depression is expected to become a tropical storm overnight and threatens to bring wind and rain to eastern North Carolina. However, since the wind shear will not be as strong, it is forecast to strengthen during the day with winds getting up to 45-50 miles per hour. I suspect they issued due to a few models increasing to hurricane strength and a blow up of convection more to the North of the suspected center.
The National Park Service announced that Cumberland Island National Seashore, off the coast of Camden County, would close at 2 p.m. Thursday and remain closed all day Friday. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Anclote River to the county line between Walton and Bay counties.
The County of Hawaii sent residents an alert about the hurricane’s dangers, including heavy rains that could lead to mudslides, as well as possibly damaging ocean swells.
About 8,000 members of the Florida National Guard are on standby to aid residents ahead of the storm, the governor stated. Byron Miller, manager of The Ocracoke Harbor Inn, said in a telephone interview that “it’s just a normal day”.
Much of the area will see the risk for locally heavy rainfall.
“The combination of a unsafe storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline”, the center warned.
And the East Coast could get a lot of rain as well.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrew Hagan says the tropical depression that’s expected to become a tropical storm later Wednesday is keeping the atmosphere more moist than usual.
Coastal surge as high as 6 feet could hit from Gulf to Pasco counties, the hurricane center said.
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The sheer amount of rain – four to 10 inches through Saturday, with coastal areas in Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando receiving the most – was already causing localized flooding in the region by Wednesday.
