Hurricane Helene’s outer fringes will begin to affect the area on Thursday, with impacts peaking Thursday afternoon through Friday morning. Gusty winds, heavy rain, and a risk for tornadoes are the main concerns. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Lowcountry, including the entirety of the Charleston Tri-County area.
5PM update: Helene now forecast to reach Category 4 strength
As of the 5PM update, Hurricane Helene was packing maximum sustained winds of 85 MPH and gusts to 105 MPH as it continues to gain strength. The National Hurricane Center is now explicitly forecasting a Category 4 hurricane strike on the Panhandle/Big Bend area of Florida Thursday night. Helene’s wind field will be rather large, and the storm will be moving rather quickly, so it will take a little longer to wind down at first. Hurricane conditions are expected well into southwestern Georgia, with Tropical Storm Watches up into the North Carolina mountains.
Impacts for the Charleston area
Rain & surge
As mentioned last night, we should expect deteriorating conditions on Thursday as rain bands move into the area around Helene’s sprawling circulation. Periods of heavy rain will be possible, but the forward speed of the storm and the general consensus that its heavy rain shield stays to our west will keep our rain totals into the 1-3″ range, highest inland. That’s still a good bit of rain, but (mercifully) is a far cry from what some of us experienced during Debby. Still, periods of flooding cannot be ruled out, especially as we will deal with a bit of surge from this one; minor salt water flooding is expected Thursday afternoon with tides approaching 7.3′ around 4PM. This will have impacts on the usual trouble spots in downtown Charleston.
Tornadoes…