Our weather on Wednesday features sun and clouds to start, with sea breeze showers and a storm or two developing in the afternoon. Highs on Wednesday will be near 90 degrees.
Florence remains a large and powerful major hurricane. At 5 am Wednesday, Florence was located near 29.0 North, 70.1 West, about 575 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. Florence was moving west-northwest at 17 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. Warnings are up for the coasts of North and South Carolina. Expect life-threatening storm surge, devastating winds, and up to 20 inches of rainfall as Florence makes landfall on Thursday and slows down over the region.
Tropical Storm Isaac has weakened a bit. At 5 am, it was located near 14.5 North, 53.5 West, about 500 miles east of Martinique. Isaac was moving west at 15 miles per hour. Maximum sustained winds were 60 miles per hour. Isaac will move through the Lesser Antilles on Thursday and is now expected to weaken gradually to an open wave in the Caribbean in 5 days. We’ll keep an eye on it.
Elsewhere, Hurricane Helene continues its trek through the open Atlantic. At 5 am Wednesday, Helene was located near 19.2 North, 35.7 West, and was moving west-northwest at 13 miles per hour. Maximum sustained winds were down to 90 miles per hour. And we have other areas to watch. The area of showers and storms just north of the Yucatan has a medium chance of development as it heads toward the Texas coast. And the non-tropical low in the north central Atlantic has a medium chance of development during the next 5 days.
