Topline
Tropical storm warnings are in effect from the coast of Florida to Maryland on Friday as the latest in a series of Atlantic storms barrels toward North Carolina, potentially becoming the 16th named storm of the season, following a string of major hurricanes—though only one with hurricane strength has made landfall on the East Coast so far this year.
Tropical Depression 15 is projected to strengthen before hitting North Carolina and Virginia this … [+]
Key Facts
The storm, which is traveling north at 14 mph off the coast of South Carolina, packs maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Meteorologists with AccuWeather warn the storm will continue to strengthen as it barrels toward a stretch of warmer waters off the coast of North Carolina, and could pack “a slew of coastal hazards,” as well as heavy rain inland as it makes landfall.
Tropical Depression 16 is expected to make landfall on the coast of North Carolina early Saturday morning, bringing heavy rainfall and a “danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation” in coastal areas of North Carolina and southern Virginia, as well as the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect in eastern Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina, where the National Weather Service warns residents to “plan for hazardous wind.”
Storm surge warnings are also in effect around Virginia Beach, Virginia, as well as northeastern North Carolina and both sides of the southern Chesapeake Bay, while coastal flood warnings are in effect for as far away as, including Richmond, Virginia, as well as parts of North Carolina, Delaware and New Jersey.
The storm is expected to bring strong surf and heavy rain, including “drenching downpours,” farther north to Washington D.C., as well as eastern Maryland and Pennsylvania, New Jersey and southern New York and New England throughout the weekend, according to AccuWeather.
Key Background
Tropical Depression 16, which would take the name Ophelia if it strengthens into a tropical storm, comes less than a week after Lee—a post-tropical cyclone that had gradually weakened from Category 5 major hurricane status as it traversed the Atlantic—made a rare landfall in New Brunswick, Canada, bringing tropical storm-force winds to eastern Canada and New England. Lee was the latest in a series of hurricanes in a busy Atlantic season, which just last week saw another Category 2 storm, called Nigel, undergo a period of rapid intensification after it formed in a remote section of the Atlantic. If Tropical Depression 16 strengthens into a tropical storm, it would bring the 2023 season within three of the 18 named tropical storms and hurricanes that meteorologists with Colorado State University predicted earlier this summer, with more than two months to go before the official end of the hurricane season. According to that prediction, the 2023 season will fall above the average of 14.4 named storms that had been observed each year from 1991 to 2020, largely due to record Atlantic surface temperatures this summer that help fuel hurricane development—a staggering recording of 101.1 degrees was observed at a buoy off the coast of southern Florida in July.
What To Watch For
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are tracking another development in the Atlantic, just west of the Cape Verde islands, that is estimated to have a 60% chance of strengthening into a cyclone over the next 48 hours, likely forming into a tropical depression over the weekend or early next week.
Further Reading
Lee Slams Canada And Maine In Rare Northeast Post-Tropical Cyclone (Photos) (Forbes)
Tropical Storm Warnings On East Coast As Yet Another Atlantic Threat Looms (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/09/22/latest-atlantic-storm-prompts-tropical-storm-warnings-along-east-coast/