The National Hurricane Center has classified Tropical Depression Four about 110 miles east-southeast of Charleston. It is moving west-northwest at 16 MPH. The forecast is for the storm to briefly strengthen to Tropical Storm Danny before the center makes landfall — currently pegged to roughly around Kiawah Island — this evening.

As for the going forecast, this doesn’t really change much. Gusty winds and periods of heavy rainfall remain the primary concerns especially near the coast. A power outage or two is not out of the question, but the thinking from earlier holds: this is going to be a lousy beach day with windy and rainy conditions.

High tide is coming up at 11:45 AM. Radar trends do suggest some rain could be in the area around that time, but the heaviest rain has so far shown itself to remain south of us. Indeed, the sheared nature of the storm has much of its thunderstorm activity well to the west of the circulation. However, given the more northward motion than models had previously indicated, the risk for some heavier rain increases slightly in the metro area. We’ll want to continue to watch this for the next few hours.

Next intermediate advisory from NHC with a position update comes at 2PM, with the next full track and advisory package at 5.