Earl southeast of Cape Hatteras with Nova Scotia at the top of the image.
Hurricane Earl's top wind speed has increased to 135 mph and Category 4 status once again. The storm is 630 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras moving northwest at 17mph. On this present course, hurricane conditions will arrive along the Outer Banks by midnight Thursday. The weather will deteriorate well in advance with winds and seas increasing as the day wears on. A manadatory evacuation has been ordered for both Ocracoke and Hatteras Islands. I spent two weeks there in May, you can visit some of my May entries on this blog for more details on the region. Forecasters expect Earl to brush the Outer Banks before heading north just off the coast towards Long Island, southern New England and eventually southern Nova Scotia. It is likely that we will have a land falling hurricane in Nova Scotia this weekend.
At present a hurricane warning is in effect from Bogue Inlet, North Carolina north to the Virginia/North Carolina border. North of there tropical storm watches and hurricane watches are posted to the Merrimack River on the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts.
Evacuations started today on Ocracoke Island with fees for ferry service to the mainland being suspended. A state of emergency has been declared for Hyde County.
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