Hurricane Joaquin is Now a Cat 4 Storm

Hurricane Joaquin is not going anywhere in a hurry. This system is forecast to move slowly eastward with a non-tropical low forming along the front during the next couple of days. These developments should steer Joaquin northward to northeastward during the next 12 hours or so, followed by a faster motion toward the northeast.

Forecasters are beginning to think Hurricane Joaquin will bypass the East Coast entirely, said Joseph D'Aleo, the chief meteorologist at WeatherBell Analytics, a meteorological consulting firm headquartered in New York City. While optimistic that the storm will miss the East Coast, forecaster have not ruled out a hit on the East Coast due to the unpredictable movement of the storm.

Joaquin is the first storm this year that has not succumbed to the shear produced by the El Nino. The storm is packing plenty of rain and if you combine that with the slow forward motion of the storm, you get the possibility of the storm causing flooding around the Carolinas event if the storm doesn't directly hit that area. Right now, Joaquin is still packing winds of about 125 mph as it heads toward Bermuda.