Florence made landfall around 7:15 this morning near Wrightsville Beach, NC. Within the past 30 minutes, a wind gust was reported to 105 MPH in Wilmington, NC.
Florence will crawl through the Carolinas this weekend and spread devastating flooding well inland- 20″ to 30″. Even the high ground of the North Carolina Blue Ridge will experience severe flooding Sunday into Monday- 6″ to 12″. These are forecast radar totals shown now through 2p Sunday. The Blue Ridge will see heavy rain continue into Monday evening.
Back here on the home front, expect an extended stretch of dry and warm weather. Plentiful sunshine can be expected as we head into the weekend along with a warming trend- mid 80s and lows in the mid to upper 60s. High pressure will remain in firm control.
The next item of excitement for our region will be from a cold front late next week. This will help increase shower and thunderstorm chances along with delivering cooler air next weekend.
All eyes will shift to Florence by midweek. She’ll likely go through a period of significant strengthening on her journey closer to the southeast US coast with a potential landfall along the Carolina coastline Thursday. There’s still time to watch things unfold, but confidence is increasing on a potential major hurricane making landfall later this week.
Unfortunately, the upper air pattern and lack of a steering current would lead to Florence either stalling out or “meandering” around the mid-Atlantic region for potentially several days…
