Ophelia a Few Hours from Landfall, Still a Tropical Storm, But Still Time for it to Become a Hurricane

The center of Tropical storm Ophelia is 68 miles southeast of Wilmington NC late tonight. It is moving north northwest at 12 mph. Top winds are still 70 mph. There is a small chance that Ophelia could become a hurricane before landfall, which will occur about 4:30 a.m. CDT near Swansboro or Emerald Isle.

Frying Pan Shoals reported a gust to 64 mph recently. A buoy off the North Carolina Coast is reporting wave heights of 16.4 feet.

Winds just gusted to 57 mph at Wilmington.

Convection has been wrapping around the center, and Ophelia may have briefly reached hurricane status within the last couple of hours. But that appears to have been temporary and Ophelia may not be able to reach hurricane strength before landfall.

But there is not really any difference in impacts between a 70 mph tropical storm and a 75 mph hurricane.

The water temperature in the vicinity of the storm is still over 80 degrees.

The Hurricane Hunters are enroute from Biloxi to provide intensity information before landfall.

Strong tropical storm force winds are occurring now along the NC Coast around Cape Fear and Wilmington and will impact areas as far north as Cape Lookout.

Winds will gust to 50-55 mph at Raleigh tomorrow and 45-50 at Richmond.

Category: ALL POSTS, Headlines, Tropical