Tropical storm warnings issued as Tropical Cyclone 16 forms off our coast, ready to push rain over ENC

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The National Hurricane Center continues to issues updates on Potential Tropical Cyclone 16. The designation “potential tropical cyclone” is used to alert people to dangers posed by a system that is displaying some but not all the characteristics of a tropical depression.

As of the 5 p.m. update, the cyclone was moving to the north at 8 mph, as it has sustained winds at 35 mph and gust up to 45 mph.

Tropical Storm Warnings have been issued for Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Green, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell and Washington counties through Saturday evening.

This new designation for the low we’ve been tracking since last week will not affect our impacts over the next two days. We are still anticipating showers with occasional heavy downpours and storms with strong, blustery winds ranging from 25-35 mph sustained for inland communities and 30 to 40 mph sustained along the coast. Coastal gusts could reach as high as 60 mph. Coastal rainfall over Friday and Saturday will range between 3″-6″. Inland communities will likely register 1″-3″ over the two day stretch.

Hurricane Nigel’s 5 p.m. advisory shows winds slowing down slightly to 80 mph. The storm is racing to the east northeast at 37 mph. Nigel will continue this northeasterly track through the end of the week into the weekend, as a remnant low pressure system

The National Hurricane Center is also keeping an eye along the African coast for possible storm development over the weekend, as it has a 40% chance within the next 48 hours and an 80% chance of developing within the next seven days.

Stay with WITN and WITN.COM as we track the remaining storms this hurricane season.

Copyright 2023 WITN. All rights reserved.