Hurricane Earl will come dangerously close to the central Atlantic and NewEngland coastlines. Thursday night, the center of the hurricane will passwithin 75 miles of Cape Hatteras, N.C. Friday night, the worst part of thestorm will get 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.
Yesterday, I discussed a worst case scenario which assumed the storm would hugthe mid-Atlantic coast and cross right over southeastern New England making theweather far more severe across a much larger area. Let's forget that idea. Thetrack we have been forecasting the past couple of days still looks on target,so let's go with it.
When looking at the projected track of Hurricane Earl, remember the following.
When a hurricane comes up the East coast, the strongest winds and biggest stormsurge occur north and east of the center. West of the track, conditions areoften far less formidable.
Now what about the poor folks up in Nova Scotia? Well, they're going to takeone right on the chin up that way. The hurricane will be no stronger than aCategory 1 when it gets that far north, but that will be more than enough tobatter the Province with high winds and large waves.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
