skufful wrote:jasons wrote:Wxman 57 should have cleared it up for everyone. Matthew has been tracking east of the NHC forecast points all day. It will still be a devastating storm for Florida, and not to diminish the effects of a major hurricane, but a brush with the outer eyewall of a 120-130mph storm is not nearly the same as a direct hit from a 145mph storm. It just isn't. The story with this storm may end-up being storm surge further north.
Do you think it will possibly recurve earlier then forecast? We are in Beaufort, South Carolina and would love for it to go out to sea.
It could, but probably not by much. The problem/challenge is when it gets that far north, the recurve trajectory by a few degrees east or west could make a big difference in terms of miles, where the center tracks. The center should stay a good distance east of Beaufort, but the storm surge could still be tremendous for the SC coast. A lot of water is still going to pile-up ahead of the storm as it pushes north along the coast.
A few other things I want to caveat...while I think it's looking more likely the center will just miss the FL coast -- anything can happen and only a small nudge west overnight could change everything. Secondly, I'm closely watching the pressure readings. With the pressure still dropping, continued intensification is likely -- the question is how much?