Earl update:
Earl's project path moves closer, but still looks to stay away.
Earl update:
Right now Earl is plunging the North Atlantic and streaming northwest as a powerful Category 4 storm with peak winds near 135 m.p.h.
But for all the sound a fury, and folks along the North Carolina coast should stay alert, this still could turn out to be a decent Labor Day weekend at the Jersey Shore.
As Dave Tolleris at Weather Risk noted this morning, Earl has moved in a more northwesterly direction that models have projected. The National Hurricane Center, however, still thinks it will make a right turn near Cape Hatteras and head northeast.
The hurricane center says it will be steered by an area of high pressure over the North Atlantic and a trough coming off the Eastern seaboard, together they would nudge Earl off the coast.
If all goes well, a weakened Earl would be off the Nova Scotia coast by Saturday morning, and the seas would calm down.
We do offer one caveat: A storm doesn't have to make landfall to cause trouble. Two of the worst hurricanes in New Jersey history -- in 1938 and 1944 -- did not make landfall anywhere near the Shore.
The Tonner plans to be down the shore this weekend so he's going to stock up on Genny Cream Ale before he heads there just in case there's a run on the liquor stores.
Tony Wood has been writing about the atmosphere for The Inquirer for 26 years. E-mail Tony here. And read all his columns here.
