First major storm of the season could hit next week. With sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, the first major storm of the 2018…
First major storm of the season could hit next week.
With sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, the first major storm of the 2018 hurricane season is already a category four storm according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). But with the storm so far away from the coast, it is hard for the NHC to make predictions on where it could hit, with the storm still potentially able to turn away from land and turn into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Models staged by the NHC and their colleagues in Europe showed the hurricane shifting more towards the east coast, hitting in North Carolina. But that is not a guarantee that it would hit there, with other models also showing the storm remaining well off the coast.
Like any hurricane, the path will depend on how other weather systems develop, with Tropical Storm Gordon having already hit the United States after going around Hurricane Florence. Any number of other storms and weather patterns in the Atlantic could direct Florence back out to the Atlantic or cause the storm to die down and lose intensity, with the bulk of the models showing the storm heading back out to sea.
The hurricane season will hit its peak on September 10 th, and as Gordon and Florence showed, there is plenty of storm activity in the Atlantic. There is a chance that Florence could stay away from the United States, but the country could be hit by another big storm in the coming weeks.
With Florence the sixth named storm of the season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expecting there to be a total of nine to 13 storms forming in the Atlantic. NOAA is currently forecasting four to seven of those becoming hurricanes, of which Florence is the first.
The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season has been a quiet one with only six storms so far, and the NOAA is expecting that trend to continue. They are only predicting two major hurricanes, including the current Florence, which has already hit that mark by reaching category four.
