Hold onto your hats – it’s a bit breezy in eastern North Carolina.
Forecaster Casey Dail with the National Weather Service in Newport says the weather in eastern North Carolina is being influenced by a strong low-pressure system to the north as well as Tropical Storm Nicole in the Atlantic – causing coastal flooding in some spots.
“We are experiencing some elevated water levels and some inundation about 1-3 feet above ground level given this prolonged, strong north easterly flow, so it is impacting areas adjacent to the southern Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River and the Pamlico and Pungo Rivers and a lot of the beaches – oceanside, east-facing beaches,” she explained.
Dail said those conditions are expected to continue through midweek.
On the heels of that system, Nicole could arrive before the week is out.
“It does look like we may see impacts from it as we get into the latter part of the week,” Dail said. “We could get stronger winds, we could get locally heavy rain, we could get additional coastal flood concerns and impacts. There’s also a chance for isolated tornados as we get into Thursday night and Friday.”
While the official hurricane season lasts through the end of the month, Dail says an early November tropical storm is unusual.
“It is kind of abnormal,” she said, “Obviously, we are still in Hurricane season, it goes to the end of November, but it is kind of abnormal to be dealing with this in early November.”
According to NOAA, Nicole will be the first hurricane to strike the United States in November in nearly 40 years and only five November hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. since they began keeping records.
