Meteorologist: "A Little Bit of Hope" for Wet Weather

WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel said there is "a little bit of hope for a little bit of wet weather" in eastern North Carolina on Sunday, but nothing to get too excited about.

The system continued to weaken Thursday – to the point that it was disorganized – and it still hasn't shown signs of tropical development.

"It is just a swirl of low-level cloud cover," Fishel said. "It's just pathetic."

A trough along the Carolinas coast has created upper-level winds that have ripped the system apart over the past day, he said.

Earlier forecasts had called for the trough to split, creating more favorable conditions for the system to organize and possibly take on tropical characteristics, he said. Now, however, there is no sign that the trough will do that, he said.

"It's definitely struggling right now," Fishel said.

Even if a tropical storm managed to organize itself, however, weather officials said it is still unknown how much rain, if any, North Carolina would receive.

Computer models of area weather showed the system taking a variety of tracks. Some models said it would move along the Outer Banks. Other models show it striking near the North Carolina-South Carolina line, and others predicted it would travel further out into the ocean, staying off-shore completely.

If the system manages to become a tropical storm, it would be named Gabrielle.