BRYAN NORCROSS UPDATE ON MARIA AND CARIBBEAN DISTURBANCE

Bryan Norcross added 2 new photos.

Thursday update on TROPICAL STORM MARIA and FUTURE TROPICS: Maria is moving away from the U.S. East Coast. The high winds have already moved offshore, but the ocean will remain agitated and dangerous as strong swells continue to impact the coast. The elevated water levels around the Outer Banks will slowly decrease, but some minor sound-side flooding could still occur today at high tide. Maria is forecast to be a memory by the end of the weekend.
Cooler air will move in as Maria moves out, though it’s not the end of the oddly warm fall in the East. Another round of unusually warm weather is coming.

Over the weekend, we’ll keep an eye on the waters around Florida. A cold front moving south may meet up with a weak disturbance in the tropics to form a low-pressure system with some tropical-development potential. The odds are not high that a significant storm would form, but it’s not impossible that we get a rainy, gusty disturbance.

In the long range, another unusually strong and hot high-pressure system is forecast to cover a good part of the Midwest, East, and Southeast. If the forecast is right, on the south side of the heat bubble, a noticeably strong, persistent east wind will set up over Florida, and south of that the atmospheric pattern could be favorable for tropical development. That would be at the end of next week.
Stay tuned. Hurricane season isn’t over yet.