US to Avoid Coastal Strike as Two Atlantic Storms Battle It Out
(Bloomberg) -- US East Coast residents from Florida to North Carolina may have a Category 4 hurricane far out in the Atlantic to thank for sparing them a direct hit from a second tropical system.
Hurricane Humberto, packing top winds of 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour, was spinning about 585 miles south of Bermuda as of Sunday morning.
It’s likely join with weather patterns across the eastern US to help pull a smaller system away from the coastline, said Matt Rinde, a meteorologist with commercial-forecaster AccuWeather Inc. The second storm, forecast to become Hurricane Imelda by Tuesday, is predicted to bend away from the coast of the Carolinas later in the week and sweep past Bermuda to the east of the US.
Even if the scenario plays out exactly as anticipated, coastal areas are likely to see heavy rain, with as much as 3 inches (7.6 cm) or more across parts of North Carolina and South Carolina over the next week, the US Weather Prediction Center said.
There’s also a chance the forecast track changes, so residents should remain vigilant; a tropical storm watch has been posted for parts of eastern Florida and a warning across the Bahamas, the US National Hurricane Center said.
“Almost all of the reliable ensembles now keep the system offshore of the southeastern United States, though some impacts are still anticipated,” Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist with the US center, wrote in a forecast analysis.
Including Humberto, eight storms have formed so far during the six-month Atlantic hurricane season that ends on Nov. 30. Most have missed the US, major energy facilities off the US Gulf Coast, and the Caribbean. Typically by this point, 10 named storms have emerged in the Atlantic.
Only Tropical Storms Barry and Chantal have made landfall in North America this season. Barry hit coastal Mexico and Chantal struck the Carolinas in July.
More recently, Hurricane Gabrielle struck the Azores archipelago between the US and Portugal, as a hybrid storm, sparking the Atlantic’s first hurricane warning of the year.
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