How Hurricane Chris Will Impact Rhode Island

Tropical Storm Chris is expected to become a hurricane Monday as it churns about 200 miles of the coast of North Carolina. The storm will be making its way north, but the forecasters believe it will be too far off-shore to heavily impact Southern New England when it passes us midweek.

The National Weather Service said Chris is likely to pass "well southeast of [Southern New England]" Wednesday into Thursday. The only impact Chris is expected to have up here is a high surf and dangerously powerful rip currents midweek.

It's an important byproduct as there have been an alarming uptick in water fatalities since the end of June in Massachusetts. On Sunday, the body of a 16-year-old Providence boy was pulled from the water in North Attleboro.

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"An outlying scenario is that the push of cooler air is not as strong and the storm fails to get steered off to the northeast," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said. "Chris may then just continue to meander off the coast and keep seas rough later this week."

With Chris likely staying far off-shore, the weather this week is shaping up nicely. Here is the Providence forecast through the weekend, courtesy of weather.com:

Monday: High of 87 degrees, sunny

Tuesday: High of 92 degrees, sunny

Wednesday: High of 80 degrees, partly cloudy

Thursday: High of 84 degrees, partly cloudy

Friday: High of 83 degrees, partly cloudy

Saturday: High of 83 degrees, partly cloudy

Sunday: High of 85 degrees, partly cloudy