With North Carolina still in its projected path, sluggish Hurricane Dorian has battered the Bahamas, leaving at least five dead after it made landfall on the archipelago Sunday.
Its winds have slowed, bumping it down to a Category 4 Hurricane with wind speeds of 130 mph as of Monday at 11 p.m., according to the National Hurricane Center.
Dorian is projected to roll north up the Atlantic Coast toward North Carolina in the coming days. Dangerous storm surges and hurricane-strength winds could potentially hit North Carolina’s coast “late Thursday and Friday,” the NHC warned in a 11 p.m. announcement Monday. It told residents to heed warnings from local officials.
The Research Triangle area is in the cone of potential paths for Dorian between 2 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Friday. Raleigh has a 24 percent chance of facing winds higher than 34 mph and a 3 percent chance of seeing winds above 50 mph, according to the NHC’s latest estimates.
Coastal North Carolina is projected to get hit harder than the Raleigh-Durham region. The coastal regions of the Carolinas are projected to get 5 to 10 inches of rain, with up to 15 inches possible in some areas, while the Raleigh area is projected for between 2 and 6 inches of rain.
Winds were previously recorded at up to 220 mph, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The storm, which NPR reported was moving around 1 mph Monday, has been described as “stationary” by the NHC and was predicted to dump up to 30 inches of rain on the Bahamas.
It will move close to Florida's east coast late in the day on Tuesday until Wednesday night then crawl close to Georgia and South Carolina's coasts, according to the NHC’s projections.
Duke has been tracking the storm and communicating with its Marine Lab, Vice President for Administration Kyle Cavanaugh wrote in an email to The Chronicle Saturday.
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.