Tropical Update: All anyone is worried about is Tropical Storm Fiona, which developed overnight. Come on, folks; it is over 1,000 miles away from North Carolina; relax; let's just enjoy the nice weather. Here are my thoughts, as usually I am laid back, and there is no reason to hype anything up. I don't know what stuff people are looking at, but I had messages this morning asking if they should board up their homes. I am not trying to get views or anything; just here to state the information we have and explain the models. Tropical Storm Fiona developed overnight; it has winds of 50mph and is moving west at 14MPH. The system is battling a lot of wind shear, and I think it will weaken some in the short term. The National Hurricane Center has issued Tropical Storm Warnings for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, and Anguilla Saba and St. Eustatius St. Maarten A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for... * Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy, and St. Martin additional watches might be needed for Puerto Rico and the DR.
Beyond 4 days the track is very complicated; models range from taking the system north and east out to sea to into the Gulf or near the southeast United States. What will decide the future track would be how strong the system is near the Bahamas; a stronger system would like to curve out to sea a weaker one would not get picked up by the ridge of high pressure and stay closer to land. At this time, it is too soon to know where the system will go beyond 5 day, but morning models are trending out to sea; but there's a lot of ?? but for now, I don't see anything to say if it will hit NC or not odds favor no right now. As always, I'll monitor the system until it is history, and you should, too it is Hurricane season; that's how we roll. Models change every 6 hours. As we get more data, we should have a clearer picture. I'll keep you posted, but no reason to panic right now and stay away from hype posts that show the end of the world. Below is the official forecast cone from the National Hurricane Center as of 11AM.
