Tropical Storm Kate earned her name on Monday morning with winds of 45 mph as the low-pressure system moved northward near the Bahamas.
Forecasters suggest the tropical storm could strengthen over the next day or two with wind speeds reaching 65 mph, but the predicted track takes Kate to the northeast over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean far from Ocean City.
With the National Hurricane Center monitoring no other areas of tropical storm development, it’s likely that Kate will be the final storm of the 2015 hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30.
No tropical storm in 2015 came near Ocean City, and the island saw surf only from distant Hurricane Joaquin in early October.
Kate is the 11th tropical storm of 2015. There were three hurricanes, two of them “major.” An average year in the Atlantic sees 12 tropical storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
The local forecast calls for strong northeast winds and rain on Tuesday. At least one surf report suggests the surf will reach 5 to 8 feet in less-than-ideal conditions. The ocean water temperature was 58 degrees on Monday.
