Arthur stirred things up for a bit yesterday, but it never was too bad. It did cause a few areas of heavy rain yesterday, and we had some gusty coastal winds. The strongest winds were along the Outer Banks where there were a few gusts to over 40mph. Diamond Shoals had a gust to 49mph. But the wind really wasn’t too bad in southeast Virginia. A lot of the area had about a half inch to an inch of rain, but there were reports of 2-3″ over coastal North Carolina. Norfolk had 0.81″. Currituck, NC had 2.10″. Today Arthur is well out to sea, and it is moving farther away. It is transitioning into a post-tropical cyclone.
Arthur will keep pushing east today, and then it will drop southeast towards Bermuda. With the current forecast it will bring some rain and gusty winds to that island over the next few days. While it will stay out to sea, it will also churn up the Atlantic Ocean. So the east coast will have quite a bit of waves and higher water levels over the next couple of days. But Arthur is just one piece of the bigger picture. We also have another area of low pressure moving in from the west. There is an area of high pressure to our northeast. There is a also a cold front to our south.
These systems will move around a bit over the next 2 days, but the result will still be the same… A persistent northeast wind and scattered rain showers at times. Today the moisture coming up from the southwest will push up over the cooler air coming in from the northeast. So scattered rain showers will increase through the afternoon.
The rain showers will increase into the evening. Then they will be on and off overnight into tomorrow morning. They will be mostly light, but some could be moderate. The rain should let up tomorrow afternoon. However, more showers will fall Thursday and Friday.
The wind will be out of the northeast today at 10-15mph with gusts to 25mph. We may have a few gusts to 30mph near the shore. The wind will gust to 30mph out of the northeast tomorrow. This will keep the high temps in the low-mid 60s. It will also create some tidal flooding. There is a Coastal Flood Warning in effect through Thursday morning for areas along the southern and western Chesapeake Bay.
We’ll have some moderate tidal flooding this evening between about 7 and 10pm. Then we’ll have more moderate tidal flooding tomorrow morning and evening. Generally between 8 and 11am and pm. Here is the forecast for Sewell’s Point:
The tide forecast may change a bit (odds are good) before tomorrow. So here is the latest tide forecasts for all of our area from the National Weather Service: NWS tide forecast.
The forecast for James City is up to major levels. The threshold there for “major” is lower than most other locations. It’s 5ft. Tonight it will stay below that, but it will rise more tomorrow. So the forecast calls for levels above 5 ft by Wednesday morning. The winds should start going down on Thursday. Though it may take some time for the tide to drop. Stay tuned for updates.
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler