ASHEBORO N.C. – Those who made the trip down to Myrtle Beach for the holiday weekend are dealing with bands of rain and strong wind gusts after Tropical Storm Colin formed over South Carolina early this morning.
At 11am the National Hurricane Center in Florida issued a Tropical Storm Warning for portions of the NC and SC coast. ( A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.)
Forecasters at the National Weather Service Office in Raleigh and the National Hurricane Center are saying that worst of the winds and rain from Colin will likely remain offshore from the Carolinas, with the strongest winds and localized flooding are all expected to stay well east of Raleigh.
DISCUSSION AND OUTLOOK ---------------------- At 1100 AM EDT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Colin was located near latitude 33.7 North, longitude 79.0 West. Colin is moving toward the northeast near 7 mph (11 km/h). A slightly faster northeast to east-northeast motion is expected during the next day or two. On the forecast track, the center of Colin is expected to move northeastward along or just inland of the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts through Sunday morning, and then emerge over the western Atlantic Ocean late Sunday. Maximum sustained winds remain near 40 mph (65 km/h) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is forecast during the next day or so, but Colin is expected to dissipate by early Monday. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles (130 km) mainly southeast of the center. Source - National Weather Service
Colin is expected to dissipate by early Monday.
Locally the NWS office in Raleigh has Issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for our area for a southward moving cold front (not connected to Tropical Storm Colin) which is likely to lead to organized thunderstorms on Sunday. Those storms should move into our area on Sunday afternoon into the early evening hours bringing damaging wind gusts and isolated flash flooding.