Earl pulling away...delightful weekend weather....
>> Friday, September 03, 2010
The center of Hurricane Earl did stay just east of the Outer Banks, meaning the worst of Earl's weather remains over the waters of the Atlantic. However, the Outer Banks continue to take a lashing with rain and wind this morning. There has been some overwash of Hwy 12 in spots, and the surf has been very impressive.
Conditions will improve along the coast later today as Earl lifts fairly quickly to the NNE. For our viewing area, today will be hot and a bit breezy with highs in the mid 90s.
Delightful Labor Day weekend weather...
The weather does not get much better than what we will get to enjoy this weekend. Highs Saturday and Sunday will be in the low 80s for most, and Piedmont lows Sunday and Monday morning will be in the 50s with mountain lows in the 40s.
If you have beach plans for the weekend, go for it. The weather will be great with sunshine and warm afternoon temps. There will be some lingering rip current issues for a couple of days, so just use some caution.
Temps will warm up by mid-week next week with some lower 90s back in place for highs.
Elsewhere in the tropics...
Tropical Storm Fiona will head toward Bermuda as a relatively weak system.
Gaston degenerated into a tropical wave yesterday, but I think there is a pretty decent chance it will develop again over the next several days.
5 comments:
Matt,
I gotta say that the Earl coverage was way overdone and overhyped again (not by you though!). I'm hating it for the business owners at the OBX. The governor declares a state of emergency? Evacuations? The forecast track was never on the coast and we know the worst of the storm is to the east, but that's all I heard about in the news the last 2 days. And there you have it, nothing happens. All of these overhypes and crying wolf is why nobody actually listens when there actually is a threat. They've just got to tone down the rhetoric IMO. I guess you have to be safe but geez, there's some perspective that has to be had in these situations.
Brad
Brad....I kind of had my head buried in the sand on this one focused on my job and our product here at News 14....I saw very little coverage from other outlets.
Was there likely over-hyping....I feel confident there was. However, in this case, I agreed with evacuation orders. The Outer Banks are just too vulnerable, and Earl was just too strong, to take any chances.
Were the odds at least somewhat in favor of Earl's core heading east of the OBX and most things turning out all right? Yes. However, I don't think you can play the odds with people's lives, and in this case, waiting to make sure Earl did bend north would not have allowed enough time for evacuations if the turn hadn't occurred.
Better to be safe than sorry!
Brad (from your comment - 8:33am):
Same can be said about when it comes to winter weather. Meteorologists all over the TV networks may warn of major snowstorm dumping 6 to 12 inches, but what happened actually was 4-6 inches instead. They (meteorologists) are just like everyone else - they are human and not perfect. I do believe they do the best they can while on the job, but nature has its way of changing its mind and unfortunately nobody is as perfect as its Creator in terms of knowing that in advance.
Also, better to be alive than actually ignoring the warning and be dead!
TY
All,
Thanks for the feedback. I completely understand the "better safe than sorry mentality". I agree caution needs to be thoroughly expressed. I'm just saying that the more these things are hyped and then fizzle, the less people are going to listen. The more wolf is cried, the more people will turn away. That's all I'm saying; and I think that's an undesirable effect. I also believe it's totally different than winter storms as evacuations were ordered that disrupts so much more than the proverbial bread and milk run. Quite simply, let's focus on the facts and not the drama, ratings, and coverage competition of a storm.
Brad
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