RICHMOND, Va. -- Florence is a hurricane again and may strengthen into a major hurricane (category 3 or higher) by late Monday.
While the computer models continue to show a wide variation in potential tracks, some of the variables in place are making a landfall in the Carolinas more and more likely. On Saturday, we mentioned the Outer Banks down to Charleston, South Carolina was an area of higher concern.
The official forecast track from the National Hurricane Center is showing a potential landfall Thursday night in southern North Carolina, possibly near or east of Wilmington. The storm will be large, and the front-right quadrant of the storm will slam the Outer Banks.
As mentioned in previous posts, there are many different factors in play that will steer and move the storm. If any of those move more or weaken/strengthen, it will affect the storm's path. While the forecast landfall is targeting southern North Carolina and then moving inland, the storm could still shift farther east or west. The cone of uncertainty keeps Virginia in the realm of possibilities.
🌀TRACKING FLORENCE🌀: Click here for Interactive Hurricane Tracker
After the storm makes landfall, the computer models are still very much at odds at what happens. Weak steering winds and potential blocking by an area of high pressure make it difficult, this many days out, to know exactly what the storm will do. The computer model solutions range from the storm hovering near the Outer Banks for a few days, to it moving north/northwestward into central or western Virginia, or moving almost due west towards Tennessee.
At this point, any local effects be felt later Thursday night into Friday and Saturday. Local rainfall totals over two inches and gusts over 40 mph are *POSSIBLE*, but the exact storm path will determine if we get that, more, or less.
We do realize people want precise local impacts, but with the storm still about 1,000 miles away from the Mid Atlantic coast, those finer details will become more clear over the next few days. Keep checking our weather page and the CBS 6 Hurricane Tracker for continued updates.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management's website has a lot of information about storm preparation.
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Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for complete coverage of Florence. Click here to track the storm with the CBS 6 Interactive Hurricane Tracker.
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