Bryan Norcross: There's a decent chance the nor'easter tagged 93L will morph into Josephine
The National Weather Service has issued flood alerts for the coastline and inland waterways from North Carolina to South Jersey.
Powerful nor'easter lashes the Carolina, Mid-Atlantic coasts, could take on tropical characteristics
A powerful nor’easter spinning off the North Carolina coast is expected to bring coastal flooding, beach erosion, gusty winds, dangerous surf and rip currents to parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast coasts through Thursday. This storm has also been tagged by the National Hurricane Center as Invest 93L, indicating that the storm has the potential to take on some subtropical or tropical characteristics. The invest designation also means that the NHC will deploy additional forecast tools to track the storm. 93L is currently forecast to remain offshore and begin to pull away from the coast by the end of the week.
This story was last updated at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026.
The nor'easter is not an especially strong storm. But its location offshore of North Carolina combined with the location of a robust high-pressure system north of the Great Lakes is creating a long corridor of northeast winds aimed at the central East Coast. When winds blow over a long distance from the same direction, they get the water moving. The longer they blow, the more water piles up along and washes over the coast and is held in inland waterways.
A blocking pattern has set up over the Atlantic, so systems aren't progressing west to east as they normally would. We're going to have to wait for a dip in the jet stream to come along with enough oomph to move things along. The computer forecast models say that will happen on Thursday.
Atlantic basin.
Until then, the nor'easter will drift to the north or northeast, which unfortunately will change the wind flow and the pressure on the coastline very little.
The National Weather Service has issued flood alerts for the coastline and inland waterways from North Carolina to South Jersey. Everybody along the coast should stay well informed. High tides will be exceptionally high at least through late tomorrow.
The system is forecast to intensify as it's moving away, which will increase the wind over the Northeast and New England on Thursday. But it will be blowing offshore, so coastal issues aren't expected.
Could it turn into Josephine?
As the nor'easter begins to turn out to sea late tomorrow, it will still be over unusually warm water. It will be a robust storm at that time, and the fronts that originally powered it – the contrast of unseasonably cold and unusually warm air – will be fading away.
WHAT IS AN INVEST DURING HURRICANE SEASON?
The National Hurricane Center is giving the system now tagged Invest 93L a medium chance of transitioning into Subtropical Storm or Tropical Storm Josephine. At that point, some or all of the energy driving the storm will come from the warm waters of the ocean.
As potential-Josephine heads northeast, the waters will get cold and it might transition back into a significant nor'easter-type system. Atlantic Canada is going to have to watch for the possibility of a strong storm coming their way.