You could walk Florence’s path through the Carolinas faster than the storm is moving

Tropical Storm Florence was predicted all along to camp over the Carolinas after making landfall.

But just how slow is the storm moving?

Just 2 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 11 a.m. update Saturday.

At that speed, Florence is creeping along at about the same rate as a rat walks.

In fact, Florence is meandering across North and South Carolina about as slowly as some of the world’s fastest turtles, according to an online Q&A with turtle and tortoise scientist Dr. Peter Paul van Dijk.

It would take a human walking at a leisurely pace about two days less time to walk from where Tropical Storm Florence sat at 11 a.m. Saturday to any point north of North Carolina.

If Florence were to continue moving along its current path at the same rate, it would take roughly 189 hours, or nearly eight days to move from its 11 a.m. position near Andrews, SC, to any point north of North Carolina.

At 3.1 mph, a leisurely human walk over that same distance would take 122 hours, or just over five days. If you walk a little faster, you could get it done in just over four days.

Some tortoises clock in at less than 1 mph on land, but they all move much faster in water.

Storm projections from the NHC say that Florence is forecast to continue its slow move through South Carolina into Saturday. The storm is expected to turn west and then north across the western Carolinas and toward the Ohio Valley by Monday. At some point, it is expected to speed up.

“It is likely to weaken to a tropical depression by Saturday night,” according to the NHC.