“The hurricane watch, by definition, means winds of hurricane-force would be possible”, he said.
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All of the rain and wind associated with Tropical Storm Hermine will quickly exit the area on Friday night and the Labor Day weekend continues to look very nice.
The National Hurricane has also issued storm surge flooding maps for the first time this year. An outside chance for the storm to reach minimal hurricane level exists before probable landfall. It was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by then. The season officially ends in late November.
A tropical storm warning officially went into effect for the Charleston area at 5:40 a.m. Thursday.
The next tropical storm names in the Atlantic are Hermine and Ian.
The depression that’s upgraded to a storm first will be named Hermine.
At the same time, a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico prompted the National Hurricane Center to issue a hurricane watch for areas of Florida’s Gulf coast stretching from the Anclote River northwest of Tampa to Indian Pass on the Panhandle. It is forecast to impact the island by early Thursday. The highest winds will be very near the coast wind gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour will be possible.
As if that isn’t enough, yet another tropical wave emerged off the African coast near the Cape Verde Islands on Tuesday. The system could then lash coastal areas as far north as CT and Rhode Island through Labor Day. That depression was about 340 miles west of Key West, Florida.
North Carolina’s Outer Banks will likely be drenched as a tropical weather system blows by with up to 5 inches of heavy rain, forecasters said.
A system off the North Carolina coast, now called Tropical Depression Eight, is in competition with Tropical Depression Nine to become the next tropical storm.
The hurricane center cautioned not to focus on the forecast landfall point alone: “Among other reasons, risky storm surge flooding is likely along the coast well to the east and south of the path of the center”.
As of 2am EDT Friday, Hermine was centred about 56.3km southeast of Tallahassee, Florida, and was moving north-northeast near 22.5 miles per hour.
A tropical depression predicted to make landfall in Florida later this week could strengthen into a tropical storm today, forecasters say.
Heavy rain is also concerning Brown.
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Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center in Miami says the storm will likely dump around 5 inches of rain on areas of central and north Florida as it approaches the state Thursday.
