Ernesto Impacts
- Bermuda: Officially making landfall at 972 mb and a category 1 hurricane, Ernesto joined Hurricanes Paulette (2020), Gonzalo (2014), Arlene (1963) and an Unnamed Hurricane (1922) intersecting the island at a minimum pressure of 975 mb or lower. Fortunately, peak wind gusts in Ernesto only reached the lower 80 mph range on the island; the building codes on Bermuda are designed for meaningfully higher wind speeds. At the peak of the storm, 71% of the 36,000 customers of the Bermuda Electric and Light Company were without power. Government officials state very limited damage transpired with the main effort to clear debris from fallen vegetation and power restoration.
- Eastern Seaboard of North America: Still a category 1 hurricane as of Monday morning, the core of Ernesto's winds will stay offshore of Newfoundland. Yet, due to the large size of the hurricane, coastal erosion has taken place along much of the US and Canada coastline, with reports of storm surge inundation into homes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and several coastal highway closures due to ocean over wash of dune systems.
- Beyond Ernesto: Ernesto will become a post-tropical storm on Tuesday and weaken into a remnant low later this week. Thereafter, the Atlantic continues to look quiet for the next week with no projected disturbances of note. On average, only 15% of basin activity takes place prior to August 20th. The average date of the storm beginning with the letter "E" is the last several days of August. While named storm activity is likely to be on average so far in 2024, the seasonal accumulated cyclone energy is well ahead of average due to Category 5 Beryl's impact earlier this season.
This is the last planned post on Hurricane Ernesto as insured losses are anticipated to be below USD $1B based on the analog events of Hurricanes Gonzalo (2016) and Paulette (2020).
Additional links of interest:
Bermuda Electric Company Power Outage Map