Tropical Storm Cristobal weakening off NC coast

The Associated Press Forecasters say Tropical Storm Cristobal is weakening as it rumbles off North Carolina's coast. At 2 p.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said maximum sustained winds had dropped from 50 mph to 45 mph. A tropical storm warning was posted from north of Surf City to the Virginia-North Carolina border. Forecasters say the center of Cristobal was about 25 miles east of Cape Lookout and about 50 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, moving northeast at near 7 mph. Meteorologist Rich Bandy at the National Weather Service in Newport said the storm's strongest winds are east of the center, out at sea. Bandy says winds on the coastal side of the storm are about 25 mph and will have little impact unless it strengthens. Associated Press Writer Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this... [read full story]