NC Weather: Tropical Storm Arthur moving away from North Carolina

RALEIGH (WTVD) — Tropical Storm Arthur has now gotten as close to North Carolina as it is expected to get.

The center of the storm made it to about 20 miles east of Cape Hatteras. Rain and wind from the storm pushed inland as far as Interstate 95.

The most recent update from the National Hurricane Center found Arthur’s sustained winds had increased to 50 miles per hour. It is traveling at approximately 16 miles per hour in a north northeast direction.

The storm is expected to lose its tropical characteristics some time Tuesday–by then it will have turned east and started moving away from the United States.

While Arthur will remain off the coast, rain bands from the storm pushed into land as early as Monday morning.
The heaviest of the rain will happened east of Interstate 95 between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.

All of the rain will have moved off the coast by 3 p.m., and temperatures will remain in the 70s due to cloud cover.

The quick-moving storm could drop between 1-2 inches of rain–with the highest amounts near the coast.

With systems like Arthur, the storm surge can still pose a significant threat, especially inland. But in this case, ABC11’s Don “Big Weather” Schwenneker is not expecting major storm surge problems.
The Pamlico Sound and Neuse River could see up to 7-foot storm surges. Hatteras down to Ocracoke could see up to a 5-foot storm surge. But with larger systems, the storm surge can easily reach 10-12 feet.

Regardless of whether this storm makes landfall or not, we will see heavy rainfall, mainly east of I-95 where a total of 1 to 2 inches of rain may fall by early this afternoon, with higher amounts near the coast.

Rain will taper off this afternoon and evening from south to north with a brief window for dry weather this evening.

Breezy conditions will be found across the Triangle this morning, then winds begin to diminish into this afternoon as Arthur pulls away from the coast.