By Sam Walker SamWalkerOBXNews.com
The Outer Banks and eastern North Carolina will likely avoid significant impacts from Helene, which became a tropical storm on Tuesday, and is forecast to intensify into a major hurricane before making landfall along the Florida Panhandle on Thursday.
But the region could still see some rain which may cause flooding due to already saturated soils, a few thunderstorms with isolated tornadoes, and gusty winds, especially on the southern coastal waters.
“While the current track would keep the most significant impacts to our west, this will be a large storm and we may still experience at least some impacts in Eastern North Carolina,” said forecasters at the Newport/Morehead City office of the National Weather Service.
The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center calls for Helene to reach category 3 status, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph by Thursday as it moves over the warmer-than-normal waters of the northeast Gulf of Mexico.
Following landfall, the center is forecast to move inland while the system grows in overall size as it moves through the southeast U.S., over the Appalachians and into the midwest.
The heaviest rainfall is expected over the mountains and Piedmont of North Carolina as of Tuesday afternoon.
