Tropical storm conditions to impact North Carolina's Outer Banks

AccuWeather

Although Hurricane Erin is expected to remain offshore, North Carolina's Outer Banks is expected to face tropical storm conditions with the high risk of wind and coastal flooding as of Aug. 20.

Transcript

00:00Farther west, we've been talking and ringing that bell since Monday of last week that this was going to come farther west.

00:08You can see the eye popping and what's also just no doubting is how the storm has gotten bigger in the last 24 hours.

00:19Yes, we've been talking about that burning with our team of hurricane experts that the wind field would be widening out,

00:24the storm would be growing in size and just look at, you can see that very easily on the satellite loop here over the last 24 hours,

00:31how that's been occurring and then look at that last frame there where we're starting to see the eye there on the infrared satellite loop.

00:38There's also a very intense band, outer rain band of thunderstorms associated with this as well.

00:44So the storm structure continues to evolve, the storm is becoming bigger and that means that that's why we're concerned

00:50about those tropical storm force gusts of 39 miles per hour or more affecting parts of the North Carolina coastline.

00:58My rule of thumb is if you see an eye pop on an infrared satellite and it lasts more than an hour,

01:04you probably have a category three hurricane. That's my concern.

01:07We'll see if the hurricane owners can find those winds.

01:11The track not really changing much, John, north than northeast.

01:16But again, we've always, always had that western side of the window extend pretty far away from the eye of Hurricane Aaron.

01:26We have. And you see the storm taking its right turn.

01:29So the storm is going out to sea.

01:31There will not be a direct landfall with this storm system.

01:34But even so, there will be some significant impacts, especially focused along the outer banks up to southeast Virginia

01:41and also some gusty winds out toward Nantucket Island as well.

01:45While we continue to focus on where that eye is going to be, miles matter.

01:50Right now we're thinking 200 miles east or west of the storm center for the tropical storm force conditions.

01:57We are forecasting right now the eye of Aaron passing east by about 200 miles.

02:04That's why we are projecting tropical storm force conditions, maximum staying winds of 39 miles per hour

02:10along the outer banks of North Carolina, perhaps toward Virginia Beach as we get toward tonight and tomorrow.

02:18And again, on the Saffir-Simpson scale, this is a category two.

02:23But we have the AccuWeather real impact scale for hurricanes, John, and we're going less than one.

02:29That's right.

02:30And this is another, this is the unique AccuWeather scale.

02:33And it's another way to showcase the value of that AccuWeather real impact scale for hurricanes.

02:37Because while this is going to be a Cat 2, and as you mentioned, maybe even a Cat 3 hurricane

02:42in terms of the wind intensity out over the water, we're focused on impacts where people live on land.

02:49And so that's a less than one on the AccuWeather real impact scale for hurricanes,

02:53because the majority of that rain and wind will be off, staying off the coastline,

02:58as AccuWeather hurricane experts have been talking about for more than a week.

03:02All right.

03:03John, there's the impacts as we get.

03:07This is mostly for Aaron.

03:09We have not decided not to clear anybody north of Charleston yet.

03:16And the reason is we want to make sure that move north continues.

03:22That's right.

03:22We'll be watching that.

03:23Storm is going to be turning to the north here through the day today,

03:26and then eventually to the northeast as it turns out to sea.

03:30And we'll start making some, doing some additional clearing further north once that happens.

03:34We'll be watching that.

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