Tropical Storm Philippe forms; Tropical Storm Ophelia crosses into Virginia

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall Saturday morning in North Carolina, with stormy weather spreading over portions of the state. The same day, Tropical Storm Philippe formed in the central tropical Atlantic and a new tropical wave emerged off the coast of Africa.

After making landfall in North Carolina, Ophelia crossed into Virginia late Saturday afternoon.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the storm was located about 50 miles south of Richmond, Virginia and about 160 miles southwest of Ocean City, Maryland. It was moving north at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds decreasing to 40 mph with higher gusts. Tropical-storm-force winds extend out 310 miles.

The center of Ophelia, which formed Friday afternoon, moved across eastern North Carolina Saturday morning before crossing into southeastern Virginia. It is expected to head toward the Delmarva Peninsula by the end of the day into and Sunday.

Further weakening is expected through the rest of the weekend, and Ophelia is likely to become a post-tropical cyclone Saturday night or Sunday morning.

The threat of tornadoes exists along portions of the Mid-Atlantic coast, and areas of North Carolina and southeast Virginia could see 3 to 5 inches of rain with some areas receiving 7 inches.

Some of the watches and warnings issued from South Carolina up through the Washington, D.C., area were discontinued late Saturday afternoon.

Despite moving away from Florida’s east coast to the north, the storm has been causing heavy rainfall and some flooding this past week in South Florida. Swells from Ophelia will affect a large part of the U.S. east coast over the weekend, forecasters said.

A storm surge warning is in effect from Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, to Duck, as well as from Colonial Beach, Virginia to Suffolk.

A tropical storm warning is in effect from Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina to Fenwick Island, Delaware, the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, Tidal Potomac south of Cobb Island, and Chesapeake Bay south of North Beach.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Philippe formed over the central tropical Atlantic late Saturday afternoon.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, it was located about 1045 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands, moving west at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. The same general motion, but slightly slower, is expected over the next few days as the storm gradually strengthens.

However, it is currently expected to curve north before reaching South Florida.

“While it shows a due-west path, there is expected to be a curve to the north,” said Donal Harrigan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Miami. “There’s tons of uncertainty as to how far west or east we’ll go with that curve. I’m not seeing anything that raises a large concern of something reaching South Florida. It looks like this thing is going to stay east of us.”

Tropical-storm-force-winds extend outwards up to 70 miles from the center.

A tropical wave also formed off the coast of Africa Saturday afternoon, forecasters said at 2 p.m., producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Environmental conditions should allow it to develop during the middle to later part of next week. It has a 20 percent chance of forming in the next seven days.

The next named storm would be Rina.

So far this season in the Atlantic, there have been 16 named storms, six of which were hurricanes. Of those, three were major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or above.

Those were Hurricane Lee, a rare Category 5; Hurricane Franklin, a Category 4; and Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region at Category 3 strength on Aug. 30.

Hurricane season officially runs through Nov. 30.