Hurricane Ernesto strengthens as the rest of the Atlantic remains quiet

Ernesto restrengthened into a hurricane on Sunday while continuing to move northeast. The Category 1 hurricane will stay hundreds of miles off the shoreline of the United States but will bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the northeast early this week.

Ernesto will additionally bring wind, wave, and rain impacts to Newfoundland on Monday night into Tuesday morning as it makes a close pass. 

There are no new named storms expected to form in the Atlantic over the next seven days.

A large plume of Saharan dust has continued to aid in suppressing tropical activity in The Main Development Region.  We typically see the amount of this dust decrease in presence as we enter September.

Coincidingly, September also brings the climatological peak of tropical activity during hurricane season.

Bermuda takes direct hit from Hurricane Ernesto

Hurricane Ernesto made landfall in Bermuda at about 5:30 Saturday morning as a Category 1 hurricane.

The hurricane hit the small islands with 85mph sustained winds. This is a large and relatively slow moving storm, so Bermuda will feel impacts through most of the day Saturday before Ernesto moves north-northeast.

Ernesto will continue to bring strong winds, dangerous storm surge and significant coastal flooding to the chain of 181 tiny islands that make up Bermuda.

Bermuda could get 6 to 9 inches of rain through Saturday with the strongest winds through the afternoon. But since the storm is so large, tropical storm-strength winds continue into Sunday.

Ernesto is moving toward the north-northeast at around 9 mph. Warm waters will allow the storm to maintain hurricane strengthen over the next few days.

High surf and dangerous rip currents continue this weekend all across the Atlantic Coast on the backside of Ernesto.

The storm will pick up speed toward the NE Sunday – early next week as an East Coast trough builds in, taking Ernesto near Newfoundland Monday night.