July 6 (Reuters) - Tropical storm Chantal appeared to have made landfall near Litchfield Beach in the eastern state of South Carolina, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday.
The tropical storm, which formed in the Atlantic, registered maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and is located about 15 miles northwest of Conway, South Carolina, and about 80 miles west of the port city of Wilmington in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
The NHC in Miami, Florida, forecasts that Chantal will move further inland over South Carolina and then North Carolina on Sunday, with a risk of flash flooding, its latest advisory said.
The storm is expected to weaken further as it moves inland, with forecasts indicating that it will dissipate into a trough of low pressure by Monday, the NHC added.