Nor’easter Continues To Strengthen
Good Friday morning, ENC! The coastal low off the North Carolina coast is continuing to strengthen into a strong Nor’easter as it slowly moves northward over the weekend. Most of the rain impacts in ENC are over except for the Outer Banks which could see scattered showers throughout the day. The main impacts remaining from this system are the strong winds right along the coast and the threat for more coastal erosion and flooding. This multi-day event has already caused damage along the coast and NC-12 still remains closed from Basnight Bridge to Rodanthe. Video from that area does show damage to the road though the extent of the damage and how long it will take to repair is still yet to be determined.
The low is not going to be in any hurry to depart the east coast any times soon, so these conditions could still be around through the weekend and into early next week. Inland, we will see the wind gusts start to diminish as we head into the weekend with partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies. High temperatures on Friday will remain in the low 70s with much drier air in place making things feel very comfortable after the summer we have had. Highs this weekend will remain comfortable mainly in the mid-to-upper 70s on Saturday to near 80 on Sunday. Dewpoints should remain in the 50s throughout the weekend and into early next week. Low temperatures should stay in the low-to-mid 50s over the next several days.
Along the coast, temperatures will be similar with lows in the upper-50s to low-60s over the next several days. Windy conditions will persist through the weekend before starting to slowly ease up once the low weakens and pulls away from the region.
Once the low has moved on, upper ridging will approach the area from the west with a surface high crossing the area eventually settling to our southeast. This will bring us mostly sunny skies and a warming trend as we head later into next week. I don’t expect a return to summer conditions but it will be noticeably warmer with highs in the upper-80s and lows in the mid-to-upper 60s. Despite the warmer temperatures, it should still feel very comfortable for late September/early October.
