7th Named Storm of the Season Expected to Avoid the Outer Banks
Tropical Storm Gert is expected to pass the Outer Banks well offshore on Tuesday, however no major effects are expected on Hatteras or Ocracoke islands as the storm moves up the coastline.
On Sunday afternoon, Gert became the seventh named storm of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, which makes 2017 an already above-active year for storm activity. Only three other years have had at least seven named storms by August 13, which includes 1936, 1995 and 2005.
Gert is expected to get stronger within the next several days, and could reach hurricane status by Wednesday morning, after it breezes past the Outer Banks. Forecasters predict that it will continue heading northeast in the next several days, with no major impacts on the Eastern Seaboard.
Although Gert will continue to remain several hundred miles offshore, the system may generate some surf swells along the Outer Banks on Tuesday, and beach-goers should be on the lookout for possible rip currents as well.
The National Hurricane Center is also watching a new development off the coastline of Africa which has a chance of developing into a storm within the next five days.
