Virginia coast added to hurricane watch zone as Earl passes Bahamas

The hurricane watch zone for Hurricane Earl has been extended north as far as Parramore Island, Va., due east of Richmond as the storm continues to move northwest toward the U.S. coast.

At 4 a.m. CDT, the center of Hurricane Earl was 815 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The storm was moving to the northwest at 16 mph. The North Carolina coast from just north of Wilmington to the Virginia border, including Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, remained under a hurricane watch. A tropical storm watch extends from Cape Fear to Surf City, N.C.

The government of the Bahamas has issued a tropical storm warning for the island of San Salvador as Hurricane Earl passes to the east of the islands. Tropical storm-force winds extended out up to 200 miles from the eye of the storm.

Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau continued to show flights operating as scheduled Wednesday. The storm was causing changes to a number of cruises scheduled to visit the Bahamas, however.

Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jewel both replaced scheduled stops at private islands in the Bahamas with a port of call at Nassau.

The forecast track for Earl issued by the National Hurricane Center in Miami seems to shift slightly west with each new update. Earl is still not expected to make a direct hit on the East Coast, but with hurricane-force winds extending out up to 90 miles from the eye of the storm, even a close pass could bring damaging severe weather conditions to coastal areas.

The hurricane also is now expected to come closer to the New England states this weekend than previously thought. Earl may still be a hurricane when it reaches Canada.

The NHC said information from a reconnaissance flight over the storm indicated that Earl was now a Category Three hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 135 mph. However, this does not necessarily mean that the storm is weakening as it nears the American coast.

“The intensity forecast is a conundrum,” the NHC discussion on Earl noted. “The hurricane is over very warm sea surface temperaturs,” but also is running into dry air and wind shear.

Forecasters believe Earl will still be a major hurricane as it nears the North Carolina coast Friday morning.

Related: North Carolina under hurricane watch as Earl churns past Turks and Caicos

Hurricane Earl may have its eye on North Carolina

Category Four Hurricane Earl moving away from Virgin Islands