Hurricane Erin is growing larger, and its expected impacts are likely to stretch far beyond its size.
On Monday morning, the storm’s eye Erin was already over 35 miles in diameter. and the tropical storm-force winds (39 miles per hour or higher) spinning around it stretch 230 miles away from the center. Typically a hurricane has tropical-force winds that stretch about 150 miles away, so Erin is almost double that and still growing in size, according to a forecaster from the National Hurricane Center.
Even though the hurricane is far from shore, the storm’s edges may still scrape a portion of the Carolinas, and rip currents could create beach hazards from Florida to Canada. Although the storm is still most likely to pass through the open sea between Bermuda and the East Coast of the United States, the latest forecast has nudged it slightly farther west, prompting new concerns about how widespread its impacts could be even as it remains far from land.
Meteorologists — and the computer models they use — remain confident that the storm will curve away from its closest point to the East Coast by the middle of the week. But any further shifts to the west would put the North Carolina coast, especially the Outer Banks, more at risk for tropical storm-like conditions and possibly some hurricane-force wind gusts.
“Interests along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Bermuda should monitor the progress of Erin as there is a risk of strong winds associated Wednesday with the outer rain bands during the middle part of the week,” forecasters with the Hurricane Center wrote late Monday morning.
North Carolina juts out into the Atlantic just enough to make it prone to hurricanes or, in Erin’s case, a glancing blow as one passes by. Over the years, the Outer Banks have endured significant damage from rising sea levels and large storm swells like those from Erin.
“Confidence in hazardous conditions has increased,” forecasters with the National Weather Service on the Outer Banks wrote Monday morning.
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The post Hurricane Erin Is Growing, and So Are the Dangers It Could Bring appeared first on New York Times.
