Since my last update on Friday morning, Tropical Storm Ana made landfall near Myrtle Beach, SC early Sunday morning with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. While this may not seem like a significant event, to the best of my knowledge, this was the strongest U.S. landfall so early in the season.
During the course of Ana's passage, peak rainfall and wind gusts reports include 4.3" of rain at Myrtle Beach SC, and a gust to 62 mph in Southport NC. Strong rainbands have also been raking areas further east in North Carolina. The graphic below shows the estimated rainfall between Friday at 8am through today at 8am.
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Estimated three-day rainfall totals spanning Fri 8am through Mon 8am. (NOAA) |
The radar and satellite images below were captured from very near the time of Ana's landfall:
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Radar image of Ana near the time of landfall. (College of DuPage) |
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Satellite image of Ana near the time of landfall. (CIRA/RAMMB) |
As of this writing at 8am EDT, the center of Ana's remnants is still very well defined and is located about 50 miles east of Raleigh NC. Periods of heavy rain and gusty winds will affect central and eastern NC today, and up into VA and the DelMarVa peninsula as well. You can view a current regional radar loop
here. This storm's development and track was remarkably well-forecast by global models going back 8 or so days... sometimes it's nice to not have surprises!
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Visible satellite image from 7:45am EDT showing the cloud field associated with the remnants of Ana. (RAL) |
As a reminder, hurricane season officially begins on June 1, and the next name on the list is Bill.