Strong Model Agreement on Bill's Track

All models continue in very good agreement with respect to Bill's track over the next several days. A gradual turn to the North and eventually Northeast is expected to keep the major hurricane well east of the Mid-Atlantic coast. High surf can be expected for a few days just about anywhere along the east coast.

Hurricane Bill Update

A NOAA plane investigated Hurricane Bill Wednesday and confirmed Bill's continued Category Four strength, with maximum sustained winds of 135mph. However, the hurricane hunters did measure 152mph winds at flight level during one pass through the storm. Bill will maintain major hurricane strength as it continues to move over very warm ocean waters the rest of this week with low wind shear. By this weekend, though, Bill will pass into cooler Atlantic waters as it turns north and northeast, possibly brushing New England and Nova Scotia, and is accelerated northeast as a large upper-low moves through the Northeast U.S. and Eastern Canada.

Major Hurricane Bill

Hurricane Bill is now a major hurricane, meaning it has reached at least Category Three status with maximum sustained wind speeds of at least 111mph. As of early Wednesday morning, Bill is a Category Four storm with maximum sustained winds of 135mph, and is moving WNW at 16mph. A NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft is currently en route to further investigate Hurricane Bill.

As Bill moves around the southern edge of high pressure in the central Atlantic, it should turn to the north this weekend at the same time that a long-wave trough moves into the eastern U.S. This trough should nudge Bill northeast, but if the timing or strength of this approaching upper low changes, this would change Bill's projected turn to the northeast and likely keep it slightly more northerly toward New England.

However, all the long-range track estimates are still in good agreement in projecting this turn northeast.