A pair of beach goers walk on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk as conditions deteriorate with the approach of Hurricane Nicole, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, in Hollywood Beach in Hollywood, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Heavy rain and winds are possible for the Philadelphia metro area to start the weekend as remnants of Hurricane Nicole are expected to sweep through the area Friday, after hitting Florida.
Nicole strengthened to hurricane strength Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting the storm will hit southeast Florida Thursday afternoon before dragging up the Atlantic coast, eventually breaking up over South Carolina.
Patrick O’Hara, a forecaster with the NWS Mount Holly, said the system will go over the Appalachian Mountains and combine with another system before hitting the Philadelphia metro Friday.
“We may get some thunderstorms with some gusty winds, a small possibility of isolated tornadoes,” O’Hara said. “These tropical systems sometimes can kick off little localized tornadoes here and there.”
Some of the expected thunderstorms hitting the region could contain damaging winds. However, O’Hara said rainfall is likely to be the greater threat Friday.
“Tornadoes, it’s still a possibility, but they’re very, very localized,” O’Hara said. “Right now, there’s not even a certainty whether that’s going to occur. The center of the system will be moving a little further to the west of us.”
Temperatures are expected to dip into the 40s next week. This follows a record high temperatures to start November. O’Hara said temps were roughly 20 degrees warmer than normal.
“A lot of it was caused by what we call a large upper ridge. It’s like a large, bubble of hot air aloft that settles over a region and keeps skies clear, bringing pretty much full sun.”