WET AND WILD North Carolina, Florida and Hawaii all feel the brunt of the weather

Posted on 08/31/2016 | About North Carolina

The weather is certainly acting up today. North Carolina, Florida’s Gulf Coast and Hawaii will all feel it’s effects as they get lashed by tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes. North Carolina's Outer Banks will likely be drenched as a tropical weather system blows by with up to 5 inches of heavy rain. But the depression had yet to reach tropical storm strength as it curved out to sea Wednesday.

Elsewhere, a powerful hurricane threatened to pass “dangerously close” to Hawaii, and a tropical storm warning was issued for parts of Florida's Gulf Coast because of a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico.
North Carolina
In the Atlantic, the tropical depression began moving away from North Carolina's coast Tuesday night but National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Lonka said the Outer Banks will be lashed with rain and wind through Wednesday.
“There'll be rain showers coming on shore, rain bands and gusty winds,” he said Tuesday.
Business owners on North Carolina's Ocracoke and Hatteras Islands say they've experienced a drop in foot traffic. But by late Tuesday, many tourists had decided to stay and brave the impending storm.
“Well, the sun has been shining and we've been hearing about this storm for two days,” Jennifer Bange, 43, of Painted Post, New York, said Tuesday afternoon. She was about to drive onto the ferry from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke, determined to show her two sons the small island.
The storm was centred about 75 miles (120 kilometres) east-southeast of Cape Hatteras on Wednesday morning.
Coastal Carteret County emergency officials issued an advisory Tuesday saying wind problems were likely to be “mostly minor,” but advised residents in case trees topple or lightweight objects are blown around.
Crowds had thinned on Outer Banks' beaches ahead of the storms. On Tuesday morning, a slow stream of dozens of cars from places including Maryland, New York and Ohio headed north toward a bridge to the mainland - but other vacationers stayed and some surfers dove in for taller waves.
Gulf Coast, Florida
At the same time, a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico prompted the US National Hurricane Center to issue a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch for areas of Florida's Gulf coast. The tropical storm warning, issued Wednesday morning, covers an area from Anclote River to the Walton County-Bay County line.
Forecasters say they expect that system to turn to the northeast toward Florida and become a tropical storm sometime Wednesday. That depression was about 425 miles (680 kilometres) southwest of Tampa, Florida, early Wednesday and was moving north near 2 mph (4 kph).
Lonka, of the National Weather Service, said the storm in the Gulf was forecast to move across northern Florida later this week toward the Atlantic. But he said it's likely to stay south of North Carolina. Still, he cautioned its path was difficult to predict days in advance.
Hawaii
Thousands of miles away, residents of Hawaii's Big Island were bracing for what could be the first Pacific hurricane to make landfall in that state in decades.
Forecasters said Hurricane Madeline weakened to a Category 1 storm Tuesday night. The forecaster said any shift in the storm's forecast track could mean it would hit land.
Meteorologist Chevy Chevalier said the last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii was Hurricane Iniki in 1992, which hit Kauai Island.
A second Pacific hurricane called Lester is still far from Hawaii.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Oahu this week. The White House is tracking the weather developments closely, but it doesn't anticipate changing Obama's schedule.
The islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai were under a tropical storm watch, but there were no alerts for Oahu or Kauai.
On the Big Island, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was closing some areas Tuesday, and park officials planned for the coastal lava viewing area to close by Wednesday morning. Some camping areas were closing, but guests staying at Kilauea Military Camp and Volcano House were allowed to shelter in place.
The US Coast Guard asked crews of barges and ships to prepare to leave Hilo Harbor and told ocean-going vessels to seek sheltered waters until storm conditions subside.
Hawaiian Airlines said customers holding tickets to or from Hawaii's Big Island from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 would be allowed a one-time reservation change without a fee.