Ernesto Now On Land--a Midnight Roundup

August 31, 2006, 10:57 pm

Posted by J.B. Elliott in Tropical Weather
Rating: 0/5 Votes : 0

Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall about 11:30 p.m. EDT near Long Beach, North Carolina with sustained winds of 70 mph. It is raining buckets over much of North Carolina.

The future path of Ernesto has not changed much. The center will continue NNE and then turn north passing over extreme Eastern North Carolina Friday and through Eastern Virginia Friday night. The center should be over NW Maryland by the early hours Saturday morning and into NW Pennsylvania by Saturday night.

Ernesto will likely be downgraded to a tropical depression by the time he reaches Virginia passing west of Chesapeake Bay. That does not mean much as far as the danger of flash flooding is concerned. Extremely heavy amounts of rain will fall along and east of his path causing extensive flooding.

Here is a link to all the information you need about Ernesto:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/tropics.hrb

Here are some additional notes:
+ Ernesto was moving NNE near 18 mph
+ Maximum sustained winds were near 70 mph near landfall with higher gusts. Since the center is not over land, a gradual weakening in the wind fields will occur.
+ The lowest central pressure just before landfall was 988 MB or 29.18 inches.
+ Storm surge flooding of 3 to 5 feet above normal tide levels will occur along the North Caroina coast.

THE RAINFALL STORY
+ That is going to be one of the main problems. Totals of 5 to 10 inches are possible from NE South Carolina into the Mid-Atlantic States and the Southern and Central Appalachians through Saturday. Some places could even get 15 inches. These amounts may cause life-threatening flash floods. Isolated spin-off tornadoes are possible over Eastern North Carolina and SE Virginia through Friday morning.

SOME SPECIFIC EVENTS
+ Flash flooding was occurring near Riegelwood, N.C. around midnight. Highway 87 was flooded and some streets were closed.
+ Flash flooding was occuring in the city of Wilmington. Beasley Road was impassable because Hewlett Creek was overflowing its banks. Burnt Hill Creek was also out of its banks and causing some roads to be impassable.
+ At Top Sail Beach, N.C., U.S. Route 17 was impassable.
+ There were numerous other cases of impassable roads too numerous to mention here.
+ Earlier tonight, a spin-off tornado touched down at Morehead City, N.C. There was roof damage to a home just east of downtown. Another tornado was spotted north of Snead's Ferry.

SPOT REPORTS AT MIDNIGHT EDT
Raleigh...light rain...wind NE 18...gusts 28 mph
Norfolk...extensive rain...E 25...gusts 33
Virginia Beach...rain...E 22...gusts 30
Langley Air Force Base...rain...E 33...gusts 41
Elizabeth City...heavy rain...NE 28
Wilmington...extensive heavy rain...E 31...gusts 48
Fayetteville, NC...rain, NE 24...gusts 39
Diamond Shoals...SE 31...gusts 38
Cape Lookout, NC...NE 41...gusts 49
Frying Pan Shoals...SW 47...gusts 57, 17-foot waves

(Please continue to check our 33/40 tropical page for all the latest information. Later on this Friday morning, we will post some more spot reports and additional information.)

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