Could Fayetteville see a tropical storm next week? Here's what we know.
National Weather Service meteorologists say it’s too early to know how a potential tropical storm may impact the Fayetteville area, but warnings about a tropical storm are being used as a precaution.
The National Hurricane Center issued an advisory Friday morning for a “potential cyclone four” as a storm system passed over Cuba and is expected to be over the Florida Straights on Saturday.
If the system strengthens, it could become a tropical storm with a probable path including Eastern North Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center.
What does the potential tropical storm mean for Fayetteville?
How the potential storm could affect Fayetteville remains to be seen.
“At this point, the track is very uncertain because the storm has not completely come together yet,” Tom Green, a Raleigh-based NWS meteorologist, said late Friday afternoon.
Green said that the National Hurricane Center has labeled the weather activity as a “potential cyclone,” but “the cyclone itself has not formed yet,” making predicting what will happen in a few days harder.
What do the latest models show for North Carolina and Fayetteville?
According to the National Hurricane Center’s five-day forecast, the potential storm could hit south of Wilmington at 8 a.m. Wednesday, and has a potential for 60 mph peak winds, he said.
“There are models that show the storm going off the Atlantic Coast through Wednesday and longer, and I’ve seen some models having the storm heading east of Florida, across Florida, back over the Atlantic Ocean and going inland over Georgia, which is a completely different scenario than the one continuing up the East Coast,” Green said. “That’s why at this point, it’s hard to tell what will happen because there are different possibilities.”
Green said that based on the Hurricane Center’s five-days out model, Fayetteville could stand to receive a 30-40% chance of rain Wednesday, but chances could weaken or strengthen based on whether a storm forms and where it lands.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Will Fayetteville see first tropical storm of season?
