THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180291
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 35 lines
And so it begins.
The first tropical depression of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season formed Monday from a large area of unsettled weather off the Southeast coast.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami is forecasting slow development and expectations are that the system will be pushed ashore somewhere along the South Carolina or Georgia coasts in the next day or two.
That could mean heavy rains in those states, possibly extending into North Carolina and Virginia over the next several days.
The system, which is not yet named because its winds have not reached tropical storm strength with winds in excess of 39 mph, was centered near 27 degrees 4 minutes north Latitude and 78 degrees 0 minutes west Longitude, or just northeast of Grand Bahama Island.
It was moving to the northwest at about 12 mph and that general direction was expected to continue through today.
Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph and little change in strength was expected overnight.
``Rainfall associated with this depression is likely to spread over portions of the southeast United States over the next day or two,'' said Max Mayfield of the Hurricane Center.
``Residents along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts should monitor the progress of this depression.''
The counter-clockwise circulation of a large low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to help steer the depression to the northwest, toward the coast.
The first Atlantic depression to attain tropical storm strength this season would be named Arthur.
The hurricane season began June 1 and runs through the end of November. by CNB