The rejuvenated Hurricane Ian finished crossing the Atlantic and made a third landfall (after Cuba and Florida) this afternoon as a category-1 storm. Landfall occurred near Georgetown, just up the coast from Charleston. The storm is still moving through the Carolinas now as a post-tropical storm, since it has lost its tropical characteristics as a warm-core storm, but it is still packing plenty of punch with windy conditions and flooding rains. Impacts due to some storm surge plus the strong winds (I’ve heard they were worse on the left side of the storm this time, which is unusual) were worst along the coast but flash floods and winds will continue to plague residents as it moves north. Eventually it will get caught up in the westerlies and head back out to the Atlantic as it dissipates. My son, who lives in Durham, NC, says they are without power and the Duke Energy website indicates that power outages are widespread in that part of North Carolina, although I am hopeful that they will be restored in the next few hours or sometime tomorrow at the worst. After Ian leaves, high pressure is expected to build back into the region, leading to mostly cool and dry conditions for the next week. Hopefully that will dry down the soil enough after Ian’s rain for farmers to get back out into the fields to harvest.
Meanwhile, the next area of interest has moved off the coast of Africa and has a 70 percent chance of becoming a named storm in the next five days. At this point, we don’t know where it is likely to go, but all eyes will be watching it.
