[cogitator]

That's an old image. Here's a more recent one:

Isabel will be over 29-30 C water virtually all the way to the Carolina Coast. Only when north of the Gulf Stream does the water temperature drop substantially. (Weather Channel this morning showed a graphic that no Cat 3,4, or 5 storms had hit the East Coast between Hatteras and Long Island since 1899! That's mainly due to the cooler waters north of the Gulf Stream. Long Island has gotten a few hits from Cat 3-5 storms that stayed out to sea south of the Gulf Stream (which angles northeastward from Hatteras) longer and then shot north while maintaining their strength).

[dirtboy]

That's mainly due to the cooler waters north of the Gulf Stream.

That's also due to the fact that the coast in that stretch trends north-south, whereas most hurricanes moving up the coast parallel it at that stretch. A cat 4 hurricane moving at 20 mph would not weaken significantly if it were to track directly from the SSW at, say, Ocean City Maryland.