UPDATE (11 p.m.) -- Ana remains as a subtropical storm with a broad wind field that expands more than 50 miles from the center of the system. Hurricane hunter data also detected stronger winds, reaching a sustained peak of 60 mph.
Ana is drifting north at 2 mph and is about 140 miles south-southeast of Myrtle Beach, S. C.
While still forecast to become a bonafide tropical storm this weekend, its transition back into a general low-pressure system may occur by Monday as the system interacts with land over the mid-Atlantic by Sunday evening.
MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) -- The ragged Subtropical Storm Ana is seemingly stuck in neutral as it spins just off the South Carolina coast late Friday afternoon.
The late-day update on the storm places its center about 165 miles south-southeast of Myrtle Beach, S. C., with highest sustained winds of 45 mph.
Ana's movement is stationary.
Near-stationary movement is expected through the next day, as the system is caught in a pattern of light steering currents in the atmosphere. The storm will gradually move to the northwest, closer to the Atlantic coast, through the weekend, with only slight changes in intensity.
Locally heavy rain, stronger wind gusts, and some beach erosion are all possible along the mid-Atlantic this weekend. Higher surf may translate farther south along the coast, increasing the rip current risk along the northeast Florida beaches.
In the long-range, the system will accelerate in forward motion and head to the northeast, paralleling the U. S. east coast while becoming a broader post-tropical cyclone.
Effects from Ana on the Big Bend will continue to be indirect, mainly in the form of limited rain potential, significant amounts of sunshine, and building heat, with the hottest readings of the year possible Saturday and Sunday.
