Hurricane Noel, Season’s Deadliest Storm, Moving up East Coast

U.S. forecasters have issued an advisory for Noel, now a Category 1 hurricane and this season’s most dangerous storm, which is moving
northward between the southeastern U.S. and Bermuda and growing in size.

The National Hurricane Center has advised residents along the East Coast from North Carolina to New England and north to the Canadian Maritimes to consult local weather advisories.

At 11 a.m., the center of the storm was about 675 miles west of Bermuda and 425 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Maximum sustained winds were near 80 m.p.h.

Noel is moving north-northeast at 17 m.p.h. and is expected to pick up more speed over the next 24 hours.

Aircraft, satellite and surface observations indicate Noel grew in size overnight. Its hurricane force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from its center. Forecasters expect it to continue to grow.

When Noel hit the Caribbean earlier this week, it caused flood and mudslides and left more than 100 dead.

Noel reached hurricane strength as it passed through the Bahamas on Thursday night, with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 km/hr) with higher gusts – a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Noel has already caused the deaths of at least 108 people, mainly from flash floods and mudslides in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. One man was reportedly drowned in the Bahamas. No serious impact has been reported on the U.S. mainland.

If Noel keeps to its present forecast track it would come ashore somewhere in Canada’s Maritime Provinces early Sunday morning. By then the storm is expected to lose some force as it passes over the cooler waters of the Atlantic, but it will still bring heavy rains and high tides, creating dangerous flood conditions.

Source: news reports and the National Hurricane Center – http://www.nhc.noaa.gov