Storm Number One Forms, 17-Foot Waves, Why
UPDATE: The tide is continuing to roll across Highway 12 on the Outer Banks and if I'm reading this tide table correct, we've got about 5 hours left until high tide, so that webcam could get a lot more interesting. (Well, technically it depends on the wind direction, orientation of the beach and local topography, so maybe not, but there's potential). I'll keep uploading interesting shots to this location.
ORIGINAL ENTRY:
The first of our two storm systems that will affect the East Coast this week has formed off the coast of the Carolinas. Even The NHC [JessePedia], who says the system is not worthy of a name, admits that it has 65-mph winds associated with it. Here's a shot of the satellite, pressure and winds as of 10 AM, courtesy AccuWeather.com RadarPlus ("X" marks the buoy, see below).
Blog reader Charlie left me a comment on yesterday's blog:
MIRLO BEACH, NC EARLY THIS AFTERNOON | OTHER INTERESTING SHOTS FROM TODAY
Agreed, Charlie. It looks nasty there this morning too. Ironically I visited Mirlo beach on my summer vacation in July.
The buoys don't have much interesting to say - the one closest to the center is out of service (sigh) and the one to the northeast of the center isn't showing winds out of the 30s yet - waves of only 10 feet. Stations closer to shore however were showing winds of 45 knots and one buoy off of Virginia Beach, Virginia showed waves of over 17 feet.
Why were waves so high there? Well, remember we've talked about "fetch" [WikiPedia] before. If you look at the length of the wind arrows on the RadarPlus shot above, that gives you an idea of how strong the winds are. Enough of those arrows going in the same direction for a long time means a long fetch. I have illustrated this above.
Where the NHC got that 65 mph reading I don't know, and they aren't saying.
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