Kocet's Corner

By AccuWeather

August 31, 2010 at 7:25PM

Dangerous Hurricane Earl is going to come very close to the Eastern Seaboard.Thursday night, the center of the hurricane will pass within 75 miles of CapeHatteras, N.C. Late Friday night, the eye wall (worst part of any hurricane)will come just as close to Cape Cod.

This spells some real bad weather for the Outer Banks of North Carolina andalso in extreme southeastern New England. In these areas, sustained winds willexceed 60 miles per hour, and the rain will come sideways. Furthermore, thesecoastal points will be battered by 18- to 24-foot seas.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina and southeastern New England will get theworst of it, but the impact of the storm will be far reaching from Florida toMaine. Already rip currents are a threat to swimmers along the Southeast coast,and the dangerous seas will expand northward Thursday and Friday.

The above is what we believe will unfold between now and Saturday, but as withmost storms, this is not an open-and-shut case. There is also a worst casescenario which assumes the storm will hug the mid-Atlantic coast and crossright over southeastern New England. This will cause tropical storm orhurricane conditions to materialize across a larger portion of the coastalplain from southeastern Virginia to eastern Maine. In order for this to happen,the hurricane will have to make some connection with a large upper air troughapproaching from the Midwest. If there is no coupling between the two, thehurricane will follow the path shown above.

Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.

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