Lowcountry Headlines

Lowcountry Headlines

 

Tropical Cyclone continues moving northwest; SC may see heavy rainfall

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine is continuing to move slowly towards the U.S. mainland bringing with it a potential for some heavy rainfall for South Carolina later this weekend.

As of late Thursday night, Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine is located about 240 miles southeast of Great Abaco Island and moving northwest at 2 miles per hour with 30 mph maximum sustained winds.

The system is expected to travel to the northwest in the next few days and eventually impacting Florida in some way.

“Whether it makes landfall or skirts along the coastline that is still the question,” said Live 5 Meteorologist Stephanie Sine. “The Lowcountry is in the cone of uncertainty.”

Sine said the model tracks are not in agreement on where exactly the system is going, but either way it should not turn into a major hurricane.

The most updated forecast tracks show that Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening the center of the system will become a tropical system and move onshore right off the shore of the east coast of Florida.

Impacts for the Lowcountry

Sine said impacts for the Lowcountry include elevated rain chances for the end of the weekend and into early next week.

By early Sunday morning, some of the system’s moisture is expected to flow into the Lowcountry which will cause those elevated rain chances.

Forecast data shows that the rain will stick around until Sunday afternoon and possibly into Monday.

In addition, the system could cause some flooding

“But that’s all we’re expecting right now, but this could change depending where the system goes,” Since said. “The spaghetti model track plots are still over the place, so there’s still a lot of uncertainty."

At 11 p.m., the poorly defined center of the disturbance was located by satellite and surface observations near the disturbance was centered near latitude 23.8 North, longitude 74.5 West.

The disturbance has been meandering over the southeastern Bahamas.

The National Hurricane Center says the system is expected to move slowly northwestward on Friday, and continue that motion through the weekend.

“On the forecast track, the system is anticipated to move across the central and northwestern Bahamas on Friday, and along or over the east coast of Florida on Saturday,” NHC officials said."Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gusts. The disturbance is forecast to become a tropical depression or a tropical storm during the next day or so."

Forecasters say environmental conditions are favorable for a tropical depression or tropical storm to form within the next day or two.

The latest models show the disturbance is expected to become a tropical storm and bring tropical storm force winds to portions of the northwest Bahamas within 36 hours, according to NHC officials.

Forecasters say the system is expected to bring tropical storm force winds and heavy rainfall to portions of the northwest Bahamas on Friday and Saturday.

“The storm could bring tropical storm force winds and rainfall to portions of the Florida east coast over the weekend,” NHC officials said."Residents there should monitor the progress of the system."

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