Weather
Tropical Storm Nate Picks Up Speed, Will Bring Heavy Rains To Carolinas
Rains from Tropical Storm Nate are on track to hit the Carolinas by early next week.
CHARLOTTE, NC — The National Hurricane Center was keeping close tabs on newly formed Tropical Storm Nate Friday morning. The system, the 14th named storm of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, is expected to gain strength as it moves northwest into the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters expect Nate to reach hurricane strength Saturday evening before making landfall somewhere between southern Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle on Sunday.
By 1 p.m. Friday, Nate was located off the southern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatan. The system was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph while moving in a northwesterly direction at 21 mph. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news in Charlotte — or other neighborhoods. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)
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Hurricane center forecasters say Nate is a rainmaker. Nicaragua expected rainfall amounts of 15 to 20 inches with isolated pockets up to 30 inches before the storm clears the country on its path toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Nate’s impact on the Carolinas, however, will be decidedly less, according to forecasters. Friday predictions called for up to 4 inches of rain through the upstate of South Carolina and piedmont of North Carolina.
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You can read more about the weekend weather forecast for the Charlotte region here.
WATCH: Tropical Storm Nate Could Strike The U.S. Gulf Coast As A Hurricane
The precise impacts Nate could have on Florida and other parts of the Gulf Coast remain to be seen, but the system serves as a reminder that hurricane season is far from over. Nate, in fact, formed at the end of hurricane season’s peak. Forecasters call the period between mid-August and mid-October the “season within the season.” This eight-week period “is often the most active and dangerous time for tropical cyclone activity,” according to the NOAA.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year. Average seasons produce about 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes. Three of the hurricanes are generally deemed major.
Patch Editor Sherri Lonon contributed to this report.
Images via National Hurricane Center
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