(Bloomberg) -- A storm that would be named Bonnie threatensholiday cookouts and celebrations along the U.S. coast from NorthCarolina to Georgia over the Memorial Day weekend.
|If the low-pressure system now northeast of the Bahamasdevelops, it will become the second named storm in the Atlantic in2016 prior to the hurricane season’s official June 1 start. There’sa 50% chance it could form by Saturday.
|“With Memorial Day weekend approaching, all interests along thesoutheast coast from Georgia through North Carolina should monitorthe progress of this low,” Lixion Avila, a senior hurricanespecialist at the National Hurricane Center, wrote in anadvisory.
|In January, Alex became the first hurricane to form in theAtlantic that early since 1938. The official six-month seasonbegins Wednesday and there’s a chance it could be an above-averageyear for storms because there will be less wind shear across thebasin as El Niño fades in theequatorial Pacific.
|Slow growth
Wind shear in the area and cooler waters deep in the Atlantic couldslow the low’s development into a named storm, said PaulWalker, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College,Pennsylvania.
“It’s probably likely it does develop,” he said.
|Whether Bonnie is tropical or subtropical remains to be seen.Tropical systems differ from other storms because they have a warmcore, their strongest winds are at their center and they maintaintheir power by extracting heat energy from the ocean. Asub-tropical storm is a hybrid system.
|If Bonnie forms, there’s an increased possibility for ripcurrents, gusty winds and heavy surf along Atlantic beaches throughthe holiday weekend, Walker said.
|While forecast models will be able to make better predictionsonce the system becomes more organized, the current thinking isthat it will drift northwest and be off Charleston, South Carolina,by Sunday, he said.
|A U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane is scheduled to fly intothe system Friday, said the hurricane center in Miami.
|Related: Top states where homes take a beating from Springstorms
|Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.
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