Hurricane Erin: Erin is a very large hurricane with its tropical storm force winds extending out almost 500 miles across.
Latest reconnaissance aircraft are reporting that Erin has weakened a bit and is now about a 100 mph hurricane and the hurricane is now heading in a northeasterly direction away from the East Coast of the United States.
Even though Erin is moving away from the US East Coast, it is still producing coastal flooding along the North Carolina and Virginia coastlines and in fact the worst of the coastal flooding can be expected with this evening’s high tide. This coastal flooding threat is then expected to last into Friday along the North Carolina and Virginia coastlines.
For this evening’s high tide, it is expected that around 4 feet of coastal flooding can be expected on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and around the Virginia Beach area. This flooding will include compounding flooding and significant beach erosion due to both the high tide & the large and battering waves being produced by Erin.
Elsewhere, extremely rough surf and life threatening rip currents can be expected throughout the rest of this week into this weekend along much of the East Coast of the United States, across Atlantic Canada and on the island of Bermuda. You will be risking your life if you go swimming in the ocean over the next few days, please do not do it!!
Very gusty winds are expected to continue through this afternoon along the Virginia coast with gusty winds of up to 40-45 mph expected along the rest of the Mid-Atlantic coast into areas around Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket through Friday.
Gusty winds are also expected on the island of Bermuda this afternoon into Friday. As for Atlantic Canada, gusty winds are likely along the coast of Nova Scotia during the day on Friday and on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland during the day on Saturday.
Forecast Impacts:
Wind:
Storm Surge:
Model Track Forecast:
Satellite Imagery:
Invest 90-L Located A Few Hundred Miles To The East Of The Leeward Islands: A fairly robust tropical disturbance, just designated Invest 90-L by the National Hurricane Center, is beginning its approach to the Leeward Islands.
Satellite imagery today reveals that there is some fairly concentrated convection occurring with Invest 90-L and the overall environmental conditions are favorable for organization and development over the next few days.
A look at the wind shear values around Invest 90-L reveals that the disturbance is embedded in a ribbon of low wind shear and conditions, overall, seem favorable for gradual development.
It looks likely that Invest 90-L will head in a northwesterly direction and because of this a majority of this disturbance will miss much of the Leeward Islands.
As for impacts to the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Virgin Islands, it appears that this disturbance will bring some squally weather with locally heavy rain beginning on Friday and continuing through Saturday. The northernmost Leeward Islands and the British Virgin Islands will probably see the majority of the squalls as Invest 90-L passes just east of the islands.
Further down the road, it looks likely that Invest 90-L will head nearly due north and likely will develop into a tropical storm later this weekend into next week. Most guidance seems to suggest that this system should pass very near Bermuda around Tuesday and because of this, I urge those of you on the island of Bermuda to closely monitor the progress of this system.
Model Track Forecast:
Satellite Imagery:
Invest 99-L Located Over The Eastern Tropical Atlantic: Next up is Invest 99-L, which continues to be a robust looking tropical disturbance located over the eastern tropical Atlantic near about 36 West Longitude. Even though Invest 99-L looks quite robust, it just isn’t quite organized enough to be considered a tropical depression.
It is expected that Invest 99-L will head in a westerly direction over the next few days. Conditions for development become highly unfavorable west of 45 West Longitude due to a wall of strong wind shear. Once Invest 99-L hits this strong wind shear on Saturday, it will end any chances for organization or development.
Even though it looks unlikely that Invest 99-L will develop due to that strong wind shear, it will still continue heading in a westerly direction eventually reaching the southern Caribbean by the second half of next week. It is always a good idea to keep an eye on any disturbances moving into the Caribbean this time of year as disturbances, that once were considered dead, can make a rebound and develop.
It should be noted that there are a few ensemble members that do show some sort of development from probably Invest 99-L next weekend near the western Caribbean. That said, most of the ensemble models show no development at all from Invest 99-L.
In any case, this disturbance will be watched closely, no matter what it does.
Model Track Forecast:
Satellite Imagery:
The next tropical weather discussion will be issued on Friday.