A tropical depression that formed quickly off the South Carolina coast Monday morning is forecast to strengthen to Tropical Storm Danny before making landfall in South Carolina near the Georgia border Monday evening between 7 and 8 p.m.
As of 11:00 a.m. on Monday, the tropical depression was located about 145 miles (235 kilometers) east-southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina, and about 110 miles (180 kilometers) east-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina.
The storm is moving to the west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph), with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for parts of South Carolina from Edisto Beach to the South Santee River, reports accuweather.com.
“This feature will not have much time for further development before it moves into South Carolina early Monday night,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said.
The reason forecasters are looking at the possibility of the system being upgraded to a tropical storm is that it will be moving over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream today. This could help in its development into a short-lived tropical storm.
A narrow stretch of the path of the storm over land could see several inches of rain. “Gusty winds are possible with this storm, but the main threat to land will be any persistent downpours where flash flooding is possible, especially in any low-lying and poor drainage areas,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Nicole LoBiondo said.
Just so everyone will be aware – there is another feature being monitored. It is an area of low pressure embedded within a robust tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic that is producing areas of rain and thunderstorms.
This low, which has been designated as Invest 95L, has been on the radar of AccuWeather meteorologists since last week, says Douty.
“There can be some gradual development with this as it tracks across the Atlantic and it is possible that this can gain enough organization to become a tropical depression during the first half of the week,” Douty said.
