US east coast faces lashing as new tropical storm pulls together
An area of low pressure which has been developing off the southeastern US coast looks set to hit tropical storm strength ahead of a weekend landfall on the North Carolina coast.
The system will likely “strengthen a little more” and be christened Ophelia amid wind and flood threats before the North Carolina landfall knocks the storm back down again, forecasters said.
The forming cyclone is said to have a large wind field, with tropical-storm force winds extending outward up to 240 miles (390 km) from the centre, nearly brushing the coast at last measure.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is warning on risks of storm surge inundation over portions of eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, including the lower Chesapeake Bay.
Heavy rainfall from the system is said to be capable of producing localised urban and small stream flooding across the eastern mid-Atlantic states from North Carolina to New Jersey through Sunday.
The system, which had malingered off the Florida coast and given low chances of storm formation, was last upgraded to an 80% chance of tropical storm status when the NHC last published an outlook at 8:00 local time (12:00 UTC).
At 8:00 local time, the system was located some 250 miles east-southeast of Charleston South Carolina or 245 miles south of Cape Hatteras North Carolina, moving north at 14 mph (22 km/h).
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