Hurricane Earl Calms Down, Long Island Surf Rolling 8-10 Footers
Posted on September 3, 2010 / 4,607 viewsEast Coast Surfing
New York, NY Friday Morning Forecast _ Hurricane Earl ahead, weakens as it approaches Massechusetts
Hurricane Earl has weakened and may not pack as big a punch when it arrives off the Massaschusetts coast late tonight, the National Weather Service said this morning.
Earl is now predicted to be a Category 1 hurricane when it churns through the ocean 50 to 100 miles east of Nantucket, and that island and outer Cape Cod are the only two areas where a brief period of hurricane-force wind gusts of slightly more than 74 miles per hour are expected, forecasters said.
The rest of the southeastern Massachusetts coastline may see tropical storm wind gusts of 50 to 70 miles per hour, according to a statement issued this morning by the weather service.
“The picture is better,” said weather service meteorologist Kim Buttrick. “It seems to be it’s going to be coming in weaker than we thought yesterday.”
Buttrick said the service was continuing to post hurricane warnings because the hurricane could “wobble” to the west and have a greater impact than currently predicted.
“It’s a hurricane and it has a life of its own,” she said. “We want to err on the side of caution.”
State and local officials have been preparing for several days for the storm and this morning the White House announced that President Obama had declared an emergency in the state, ordering federal aid to supplement the state and local efforts.
A Category 1 hurricane carries winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour. As recently as Thursday, Earl had been a Category 4 storm, with winds of 145 miles per hour. And experts from the National Hurricane Center had predicted the center would pass “very close” to Nantucket, while local National Weather Service forecasters suggested it could pass as close as 15 miles.
While the hurricane may not be as strong and close as was originally predicted, its winds, hitting trees full of foliage, will still be able to down or uproot them, causing scattered power outages, particularly on the Cape and islands, forecasters said.
The storm will also bring some areas heavy rains of up to 6 inches over a 6-hour period, raising the possibility of urban and poor drainage flooding, as well as small stream flooding. The storm is not expected to cause coastal flooding because it is hitting at a perfect time — low tide. But it is expected to stir up heavy surf and dangerous rip currents along the coast, beginning today.
Forecasters warned that the dangerous conditions at the beach would persist into Saturday, then begin slowly easing on Sunday and Monday. They advised people to check with local lifeguards about conditions before jumping in.
“If the winds and the rains don’t get us, the surf will,” said Buttrick.
Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said the state emergency operations center in Framingham had been fully activated this morning and about 100 federal, state, private, and volunteer personnel would be staffing it around the clock, ready to assist local communities.
“The state and local communities are very prepared. The good thing about hurricanes is it gives you the lead time to take these steps, to pre-position and make sure you have all your ducks in a row. We think we’ve done that this week,” he said.
In Chatham, Harbormaster Stuart Smith said he wasn’t ready to let his guard down, despite the news that the storm was predicted to be less fearsome.
“These storms are unpredictable. It’s not going to be as bad… but we’re still going to get tropical storm force winds and hurricane gusts and that’s bad enough people got to pay attention,” Smith said from his boat this morning.
He said the storm was comparable to a winter nor’easter, “but we don’t have 20,000 visitors in Chatham and 3,000 recreational boats in the water” when those storms hit.
“When it gets north of us, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief,” he said.
The state braced for the storm on Thursday, with Governor Deval Patrick declaring a state of emergency. On Nantucket, crews piled sandbags and mariners pulled boats from the harbor, while on Cape Cod half-inch-thick plywood and flashlight batteries outsold sunscreen. Beaches were closed, renters left cottages early, and day trippers shifted plans inland, the Globe reported this morning.
As of 5 a.m. today, Earl, still a Category 2 hurricane, was 465 miles south-southwest of Nantucket, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. It was moving north-northeast at 18 miles per hour, after lashing the North Carolina coast.
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See you in the water!
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