20080721 Virginian Pilot: Tropical Storm Cristobal grazes coast, mostly skips wildfires
By Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer The Virginian-Pilot © July 21, 2008
The first tropical storm of the season to threaten the United States grazed the Outer Banks, bringing some showers and wind but saving most of its fury for the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
"There is little to nothing on land now," National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Rusnak said about 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Most of the Outer Banks, he said, "just saw a showery day."
As of 8 p.m., Tropical Storm Cristobal was 25 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., moving northeast at 8 mph, heading out to sea.
A cold front coming from the northwest is expected to help push the storm out to sea today, Rusnak said, although the front will bring its own set of showers and thunderstorms.
The strongest winds at the coast were recorded at Cape Hatteras, which got up to between 30 and 35 mph, Rusnak said. Winds of up to 50 mph were recorded offshore, but "nothing near that by the coast," he said.
Rainfall was expected to be 1 to 2 inches, with up to 4 to 5 inches expected in some areas. Not much of that rain fell on either the fire burning in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge or the fire at the Great Dismal Swamp, Rusnak said.
And none of it fell in Duck…
[…]
Read the rest here: Tropical Storm Cristobal grazes coast, mostly skips wildfires
