Geist: Where is Hurricane Erin this afternoon? And where is it headed?
Belk: The last position that we have for Erin which was at 2 o’clock this afternoon on Wednesday, was that it’s about 530 miles West of Bermuda. To put in another location, it’s about 335 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina. Erin has turned to the North and is expected to turn around to the Northeast later on tomorrow. We expect Erin will pass about 300 miles East of Chatham sometime during the day Friday and into Friday night. Then, will hopefully move further out into the North Atlantic for Saturday.
Geist: What category is Hurricane Erin right now, and how fast are those winds?
Belk: The Maximum sustained winds in Erin right now are about 110 miles per hour. Which is a very high-end category two. Almost category three storm. It is expected to potentially increase again up to a major hurricane which would be category three over the next day or so. But it should weaken as it continues to move farther North over the colder waters of the North Atlantic.
Geist: What impacts can we expect to see here on Cape Cod the Islands?
Belk: The most significant impacts for the Cape and Islands will be the very high risk of rip currents. That’s going to persist for several days into this weekend. So, even though Erin is only going to be making a brief appearance at our latitude the impacts of Erin are already here and they are going to continue for at least several more days.
Geist: Should people be doing anything to prepare?
Belk: We do expect some winds out of the Northeast. Especially across Nantucket and the Vineyard. It could be up as much as fifty miles per hour to the Northeast. The main issue- we typically get winds like that frequently across Cape and Islands, but it’s during the wintertime where the trees don’t have leaves on them. So, it will be a little different situation for this kind of wind from a Northeast direction. As far as the surf, it’s recommended that people hear the advice of local officials and just simply not enter the water if it looks too dangerous to do so.
Geist: Anything else we should know about hurricane Erin?
Belk: We are expecting some coastal flooding also for Nantucket and the Vineyard. That will be for the evening tide Thursday night and again Friday night. We are expecting tides to be about a full foot and a half. Maybe, 1.7 feet above normal astronomical tides during those times. There could be some minor coastal flooding issues across Nantucket and the Vineyard.
Geist: That is Matthew Belk meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Norton office. Matthew, thank you so much.
Belk: Alright. Have a good day.
