Hurricane Joaquin appears to be swinging out over the Atlantic rather than heading straight for the East Coast, but local forecasters are still expecting heavy rain and wind in the coming days.
Anthony Gigi is a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. He said this morning that even with no hurricane, the mid-Atlantic would have seen stormy weather this weekend:
"Really not much to do with Joaquin, it has to do with just the northeast to east flow with a very high pressure system to our north, and there's going to be some locally heavy rain today also. And that is connected to, I guess, the feed-off from Joaquin."
He says it'll cause some moderate to major coastal flooding through Sunday.
"It's pretty serious in terms of places that do get impacted when you have tidal flooding, they are going to be impacted, really, over these next couple of days."
That goes for the beaches of Sussex County all the way up to the tidal Delaware River in the northern part of the state.
Gigi also says a high wind warning is in effect for Sussex through tonight -- gusts could top 60 miles per hour. Several inches of rain are forecast for Delaware over the next several days.
There's no state of emergency in Delaware yet, but several neighboring states have declared one, including New Jersey, still leery of damages like what Hurricane Sandy caused.
Delaware State Parks is closing campgrounds at Cape Henlopen, Delaware Seashore and Trap Pond in advance of this weekend's weather. And the University of Delaware has canceled its Coast Day festival in Lewes on Sunday.
At this time, this weekend's NASCAR races are still on.
