Despite Turn Away from the U.S., Imelda Will Still Deliver Impacts

The good news is that Imelda is taking a turn away from the U.S., sparing the East Coast a direct impact from the growing storm. The bad news is that Imelda is still close enough to the coastline to usher in rough surf conditions, dangerous rip currents, and coastal flooding in a zone from Florida and up into the Northeast. Here is what you need to know about this developing weather threat.

Latest Update on Imelda's Anticipated Impacts on the U.S.

A large area of high pressure anchored over the northeastern U.S. is keeping the core of Imelda in the open ocean waters. However, that does not mean that Florida, the Southeast, and the mid-Atlantic will dodge Imelda's impacts entirely. Imelda will pair with the energy generated by Hurricane Humberto to the east to send high seas and the associated hazards to much of the coastal areas of the Atlantic Seaboard.

As forecasters had been predicting for days, Imelda evolved into a hurricane on Tuesday morning. The Tuesday afternoon update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has Imelda churning to the east of the Florida peninsula with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. Hurricane Imelda is crawling to the northeast at a speed of 7 mph.

The rare Fujiwhara Effect between Imelda and Humberto helped to tug Imelda away from the U.S. The two hurricanes are expected to come as close as 500 miles to each other, a distance that is close enough for the two features to interact.