Hurricane Helene Forecast to Weaken on Path Toward U.K.

(Bloomberg) -- Not all hurricanes are created equal.

As Florence barrels toward the Carolina coast, Hurricane Helene is forecast to weaken as it tracks northeast across the Atlantic Ocean toward Ireland and the U.K.

Helene was packing winds of 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) Wednesday, according to an advisory by the National Hurricane Center. It’s expected to slow and become a tropical storm Thursday.

It will continue to weaken over the next several days, and may reach Ireland Monday night as an “extratropical” storm with winds gusting to 40 miles per hour, according to Steve DiMartino, a meteorologist with Weather Concierge. That would be similar to Hurricane Ophelia, which trekked across the North Atlantic to lash Ireland with heavy rain and wind in October 2017.

Helene “will primarily produce heavy rains and gale-force winds, but not be tropical in nature” by the time it reaches Ireland, DiMartino said in a phone interview Wednesday.

--With assistance from Brian K. Sullivan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Eckhouse in New York at beckhouse@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Ryan at jryan173@bloomberg.net, Will Wade, Joe Carroll

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