Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 expected to become Imelda over weekend

Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine was designated Friday in the southwest Atlantic, putting portions of the Southeast U.S. on alert as the system organizes and begins to parallel Florida.

As of Friday afternoon, the system was located in the vicinity of eastern Cuba and the southeastern Bahamas and is expected to strengthen into Imelda over the weekend.

The PTC designation, issued by the National Hurricane Center, allows officials to issue tropical storm or hurricane alerts ahead of the system becoming a full-fledged tropical cyclone.

As of Friday, no watches or warnings had been issued for the U.S. coastline; however, Tropical Storm Warnings and Watches were in effect for parts of the Bahamas.

Forecasters continue to stress there is uncertainty in the forecast track, but at this point, a landfall along the Carolina coast is possible next week.

The NHC expects Imelda to reach the strength of a Category 1 hurricane while offshore Charleston on Tuesday but the cyclone’s forward progress is expected to stall.

Florida potential impacts

Overall, tropical storm-force winds are not expected over land, but some tropical storm alerts could be issued for offshore waters, according to National Weather Service meteorologists.

Most forecast models now agree on the Carolinas seeing the worst from the cyclone, with the Sunshine State expected to stay on the drier side of the storm.

Forecasters stress that seas will be rough and compared conditions similar to a washing machine, with an extremely high risk of rip currents next week.

Exact impacts will continue to be fine-tuned over the weekend as the event gets closer in time.