As of late this afternoon, Hurricane Joaquin is still a formidable category 4 hurricane in the central Bahamas, where it has been almost parked for the last 24 hours, packing winds of 130mph. This afternoon, it has started drifting north, moving from Rum Cayo toward San Salvador Island. Undoubtedly, once Joaquin leaves the area, extensive damage will be left in it’s wake.
Obviously, all eyes have been focused on Joaquin and it’s future track. That future track now shows high confidence in a north to northeast movement, staying several hundred miles away from the US coastline. With that said, the East coast has another problem on it’s plate. As a massive area of high pressure across Quebec contrasts with a low across the Southeast, a massive amount of wind has been pushed down the eastern Seaboard, from the northeast. That has created beach erosion and coastal flooding from New England, to the Carolina Coast. The worst of it, south of us. Add in a tropical moisture stream into that low over the Southeast, and flooding rains are likely across the Carolinas, with many towns picking up 8-15" of rain over the next few days.
For us, we’ll continue to watch periods of rain move in tonight, into tomorrow morning, only to taper to drizzle in the afternoon. Additional rain totals run 1/2" to 1 1/2" from northwest to southeast. The winds will continue to be gusty out of the northeast, providing gusts 30-45mph over the coast. There is a wind advisory in place until 11am tomorrow for southern Bristol, southern Plymouth County, and the Cape and Islands. There’s also a coastal flood advisory from 3-6pm for minor coastal flooding during the afternoon high tide on east to northeast facing shorelines.
Pockets of drizzle are fewer and farther between on Sunday, and we may even have a few breaks in the overcast. It’ll be a cool day, but it’s not a bad morning to get in a walk if you’re joining everyone in town for the Making Strides Walk. http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?sid=16393&type=fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=70168
Next week looks much better, temps back into the 60s with mainly dry weather prevailing. (Large seas and rip currents will continue into mid-week).
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