As the western half of our state continues the long road to recovery from Helene, the rumor mill has swirled about "another storm coming to North Carolina." That is simply not true.
Hurricane Milton, no doubt, is a powerful storm. Its projected path, however, is south of Central and Western North Carolina.
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Let's explain why we don't expect major, direct impacts from the storm.
The western side of a storm system tends to be the drier side, due to sinking air.
The latest path from the National Hurricane Center shows that we will be hundreds of miles north and west of the storm Thursday, and it is a smaller storm than Helene was.
That said, rough surf will be likely along the East Coast Wednesday night through Friday.
In terms of rain, a path slightly farther north would bring a few showers along the East Coast.
However, high pressure will supply drier air to central and western North Carolina. Even rain totals at the coast look like they'll be less than one-tenth of an inch.
Sure, it might get breezy at times due to the pressure gradient between Milton to the south and high pressure to the north.
Gusts of 20 mph+ are not uncommon in October.
So, no, we will not see direct impacts from Milton.
For Florida, however, they are very hurricane-fatigued. This will likely be the 10th major hurricane (Category 3+) to make landfall in the Sunshine State in the last 20 years. It will become the sixth hurricane to make landfall since late September of 2022.