ATLANTIC UPDATE 3

Category 4 Hurricane Earl is projected to pass perilously close to the Outer Banks of North Carolina either late on Thursday or early Friday. It is forecast to weaken at that point to Category 3 status with sustained winds of 120 mph.

Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County, said although the forecast track keeps the storm offshore, “even a 100 mile deviation would result in a huge impact” to that region.

He said as the storm approaches the Carolinas, “the circulation will grow” and added that those states can expect to start seeing large waves from Earl by Wednesday.

“If all of this worked out perfectly, it would go parallel to the coast. But there’s still some concern for Cape Hatteras,” Read said.

Tropical Storm Fiona is forecast to follow a path similar to that of former Hurricane Danielle.

Now that Tropical Storm Gaston has emerged in the Eastern Atlantic, the big question is, where will it go?

Any chance it will turn north like its three predecessors, Danielle, Earl and Fiona?

Unfortunately, way too early to say.

We’re just going to have to watch the darn thing for the next several days — because forecasters simply don’t have a good handle on it yet.

For now, the official forecast calls for it to aim generally toward the northern Lesser Antilles and grow into a hurricane along the way.

If it follows that path, it would be in position to slide into the Caribbean – south of Florida — or turn northwest. In other words, it could go anywhere from Central America to Canada.

The models aren’t much help at this point; they’re all over the place.

Again, we’ll have just to have wait and see. Hopefully, we’ll have a better idea of its intentions by early next week.

New development of tropical system has emerged from the west Coast of Africa – a tropical wave is located a few hundred miles East-Southeast of the Southernmost Cape Verde Islands.

The system will develop slowly and there is a low chance of becoming a tropical Cyclone during the next 24 hours.

Brought to you by the AG-ER Team