Hurricane Arthur reaches Category 2

The first hurricane of the season, Arthur, now a Category 2 storm, has reached land between Cape Lookout and Beaufort in North Carolina.

According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Arthur officially became a hurricane at about 5am EDT on Thursday, when maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and central pressure of 985 mb were reported by Hurricane Hunter aircraft and NOAA Doppler radar.

The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said: “The forecast track calls for the center to cross coastal North Carolina during the next several hours, pass southeast of New England in about 24 hours, and be near or over western Nova Scotia in about 36 hours. After that, the westerlies are expected to steer Arthur or its remnants across Newfoundland into the North Atlantic.”