Eastern North Carolina to see rainy, breezy end of the week due to Tropical Storm Nicole
As Tropical Storm Nicole makes its way up the coast of the United States, eastern North Carolina can expect minimal impacts on Friday.
Nicole was expected to make landfall as a hurricane/borderline tropical storm Wednesday evening along the southeast coast of Florida, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Erik Heden. The storm is moving northwest up across Georgia, South Carolina and will eventually make it to North Carolina during the day Friday.
"For us, not a huge impact," Heden said. "We'll see some increase in chances for rain Thursday. The heavier rain comes in later Thursday night and especially during the day Friday. Not a lot of rain, maybe an inch, an inch and a half. It shouldn't cause any flooding problems for us; it's actually going to be a beneficial rain. A lot of the strong winds will also be well west of us so it will be breezy Friday, maybe some winds around 30 miles per hour but we actually saw stronger winds in our area Tuesday afternoon and overnight."
Those high winds on Tuesday were because of both a big area of high pressure to the North and Nicole itself, Heden said. He said the gradient between the two caused some strong winds.
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Tropical Storm Nicole will not be that dissimilar to what eastern North Carolina experienced with Tropical Storm Ian last month, Heden added, though Nicole is going to be much farther away. He said the biggest thing to highlight is the chance for isolated tornados.
"Because the storm is going to be well west of us, we're going to be on that southeast side and on that side, sometimes there are going to be really strong south winds so it's going to be really tropical feeling in the air on Friday, kind of humid and tropical," Heden said. "Because of that, we could have some stronger thunderstorms and those have the potential for isolated tornados. That's the main thing we're looking at."
That's why Heden said they don't want to let their guard down because there could be some stronger thunderstorms Friday and into Friday evening.
The National Weather Service's Wednesday morning Tropical Storm Nicole briefing forecasted all of eastern North Carolina to be at a slight risk for damaging winds in any stronger storms brought on by Nicole. Jacksonville, New Bern and Kinston areas are forecast to see around 30 mile per hour wind gusts, with closer to the coast at North Topsail Beach and Morehead City seeing a bit higher, with 32-36 mile per hour winds.
Jacksonville, New Bern and Kinston areas will also all see an inch to an inch and a half of rainfall, though North Topsail Beach is predicted to receive a little more at one and a half to two inches of rain. Heden said storm surge should not be a problem in eastern North Carolina.
However, for those with weekend plans, Heden said Nicole will get out of here pretty quickly. The best chance of rain will be throughout Friday and Friday evening, but the area will dry out Saturday. By this weekend, Nicole will be up in the northeast United States.
Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Here's what Eastern North Carolina can expect of Tropical Storm Nicole
