Hurricane Nicole leads to a wet, windy Delaware forecast

Hurricane Nicole is expected to pound Florida today, but as the storm moves up the coast, the biggest threat to Delaware could be thunderstorms with strong winds and heavy rains.

The National Weather Service reported Wednesday that the storm should weaken while moving across Florida and the southeastern United States Thursday through Friday, and is likely to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday night over the Mid-Atlantic states.

“We’d expect the worst of it in Delaware will be Friday afternoon and evening and the early morning hours Saturday,” said Amanda Lee, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey. “By mid-day Saturday we expect the system to be out of Delaware.”

Rainfall and wind speed predictions

The maximum expected wind gusts for Delaware are between 35 and 45 mph late Friday afternoon and night, “but if a thunderstorm develops, gusts could be 50 mph or more,” Lee said.

Rainfall of 1.5 to 2 inches is expected in most parts of the state, with less in southern Sussex County.

But that total could be more in any area where a thunderstorm strikes.

Lee said there’s some good news in the forecast for beach areas.

“Currently there’s not a strong threat of coastal flooding. Going out to Friday, we are below even minor coastal flooding thresholds,” she said, because the track of the storm is forecast more to the north and west of the state.

AccuWeather meteologist Brandon Buckingham agrees.

“The heaviest rain is forecast along the spine of the Appalachians. The trend is in that direction, and so the eastern Ohio Valley is expected to receive the highest rainfall,” Buckingham said.

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The main threat to Delaware will be possible thunderstorms.

“The rain generally is expected to be 1 to 2 inches, but areas with localized thunderstorms could exceed that,” he said.