A tropical storm named Edouard became a hurricane on Sunday, and while its track over the open water of the Atlantic Ocean will be thousands of miles away from Ocean City, there’s a good chance it will send big waves and strong currents to the island by mid-week.
At 11 a.m. Monday, Edouard was a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 105 mph. But forecasters expect it to strengthen to a major hurricane (Category 3 with winds of at least 111 mph) by tonight.
The storm was 655 miles east of Bermuda on Monday afternoon, and its projected track remains far from the the East Coast. It will not bring any sort of rain or wind to Ocean City.
But because the storm is so strong, forecasters expect it to generate waves that will travel across the Atlantic and reach the East Coast.
“Swell from this storm is forecast to arrive as early as Tuesday evening and linger through Friday,” according to the surf report from Ocean City’s Surfers Supplies. “Wednesday afternoon and Thursday look to be the peak of the swell.”
The forecast calls for waves that will top out in the 5- to 7-foot range.
The Surfline forecast provided by 7th Street Surf Shop calls for waves of 5 to 8 feet in Ocean City, peaking at noon Wednesday.
The marine forecast calls for steady north winds on Wednesday, fading a bit on Thursday.
“Expect head high to overhead surf Wednesday,” Heritage Surf suggests in its surf report. “Still plenty of swell early Thursday and we should see a little more west in the winds so it could be pumping in some spots.”
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