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Downpours Will Continue To Soak Eastern Carolinas

August 14, 2017
UPDATED By WeatherBug Meteorologist, Chad Merrill
Although Bonnie is no longer an organized tropical system, it will produce plenty of weather headaches for the eastern Carolinas through the work week.

Bonnie’s circulation center continues to rotate across South Carolina. The counterclockwise circulation is helping to funnel rain bands into the Carolinas. The problem is Bonnie is cut-off from the main jet stream flow. This will allow it to sit and spin across the Carolinas through at least midweek.

The low pressure will produce more fresh downpours and a few thunderstorms in locations that have already seen flooding. An additional 1 to 4 inches will soak places like Myrtle Beach, S.C., Wilmington, Cape Hatteras and Elizabeth City, N.C. This much rain falling on an already saturated ground will spark flash flooding. Remember to avoid driving through flooded roadways. The water is usually deeper than what it appears.

The additional downpours will add to a growing precipitation surplus for 2016 in the eastern Carolinas. Cape Hatteras, N.C., is 5.52 inches above average for rain. Meanwhile, Wilmington, N.C., is 3.56 inches above average for the year so far. North Myrtle Beach, S.C., will likely see rainfall amounts return to average with a deficit of 1.43 inches since January 1.

A cold front sweeping through the Northern Rockies will make it to the Ohio Valley by Thursday. The southerly wind flow aloft ahead of the front will help the Carolinas low pressure move into southeastern Virginia. Downpours will then spread into the Delmarva Region before the front finally pushes the low pressure into the Atlantic Friday.

The first named storm, Hurricane Alex, occurred in January over the central Atlantic. Bonnie became a tropical storm Saturday afternoon about 120 miles off the South Carolina Coast before making landfall as a depression Sunday morning. Pre-season storms like Bonnie aren't that unusual: just last year, a preseason tropical storm, Ana, formed in early May near the same area where Bonnie became a tropical storm before making landfall in South Carolina.