Potential Tropical Cyclone Sixteen developed Thursday, a few hundred miles east of the Florida peninsula.
The system, in its formative stages, has the potential to become a tropical or subtropical system Friday. If so, its name would be Ophelia and mark the 16th system of the busy 2023 season.
Identified as a potential tropical cyclone, the National Hurricane Center proactively issued tropical storm warnings for coastal North Carolina and a portion of eastern Virginia. Additionally, storm surge warnings are in effect as well.
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As the system moves to the north and becomes better organized, it will be responsible for providing locally heavy rainfall across the Mid-Atlantic with the threat for to 2 to 5 feet of storm surge.
Tropical storm conditions are possible Friday through Saturday morning for a good portion of eastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks.
The system will then move north through Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, with potential impacts extending as far north as New Jersey by the end of the weekend.
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Hurricane hunters are scheduled to investigate the system Friday afternoon as it moves away from Florida.
Additionally, the National Hurricane Center is looking to the open tropical Atlantic as a broad area of low pressure marches west.
With an 80% chance for development, the central tropical Atlantic will be watched through the weekend for the formation of a tropical depression.
