Terrifying Major Hurricane Joaquin Looms off Coast!
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UPDATE 2 PM: We now have a Cat 4!
Oct. 1, 10 a.m.: Hurricane Joaquin has a big problem -- or should I say, the residents of the Bahamas (and perhaps later, the East Coast) have a big problem.
The storm keeps sitting in the same place (which is not something the models predicted), soaking up the hot Atlantic water and rapidly strengthening. When I went to bed, it was a Category 1. I wake up and it's a Cat 3, headed to at least Cat 4 per the forecast models -- with multiple models showing a Cat 5!
This changes everything -- now the track of the storm becomes less important (and thank goodness, the models are still all over the place -- although this morning's runs showed the first significant group of tracks moving the storm out to sea, not to the North Carolina coast).
Even without landfall, however, this dangerous storm could bring significant coastal flooding and storm surge to the entire East coast.
We talked about Sandy and Isabel yesterday, but this storm's track is starting to remind me of Irene, which was originally predicted to hit the Carolinas but ended up staying just far enough off the coast to not make landfall (except the Outer Banks) until Long Island:
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