From our news services
The National Weather Service today issued a warning that swells from Tropical Cyclone Henri will impact beaches on the Outer Banks beginning Friday and lasting into the weekend.
This will lead to rough surf and the potential for life threatening rip currents.
As of 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Henri was 190 miles southwest of Bermuda, where a tropical storm watch that had been in effect on Tuesday was lifted. The storm was moving west at 8 miles per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. It was expected to keep moving west until Friday, when forecasters said that they expected it to turn north, the National Hurricane Center said.
A tropical cyclone is a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has a closed low-level circulation. Tropical cyclones rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone that has maximum sustained surface winds ranging from 39-73 mph.
A hurricane is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph and higher. In the western North Pacific, hurricanes are called typhoons and similar storms in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean are called cyclones.
Currently, Henri is a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, but it may become Hurricane Henri by the weekend.
