(Eagle News) – Hurricane Irma — which has already killed 24 people in the Caribbean region — is now bearing down on Florida as the northern eyewall of this monstrous Category 4 hurricane is now affecting the Lower Florida Keys as of 7 a.m. EDT (7 p.m. Philippine time) on Sunday, Sept. 10, according to the latest update from the US’ National Hurricane Center (NHC).
“NORTHERN EYEWALL OF IRMA REACHES THE LOWER FLORIDA KEYS… As of 7:00 AM EDT Sun Sep 10 the center of Irma was located near 24.4, -81.5 with movement NW at 8 mph. The minimum central pressure was 929 mb with maximum sustained winds of about 130 mph,” said the NHC’s latest forecast.
The agency which is responsible for tracking and predicting weather systems within the tropics, said that Irma, with maximum winds of 130 miles per hour, could strengthen even more “in the next several hours.”
“Irma is expected bring life-threatening wind and storm surge to the Florida Keys and southwestern Florida as an extremely dangerous major hurricane today, and these conditions will spread into central and northwestern Florida tonight and Monday,” the 5 a.m. EDT Hurricane Center’s forecast discussion said.
“Preparations in the Florida Keys and southwest Florida should be complete since hurricane-force winds are spreading into that area,” it warned.
“Life threatening situation,” warns NHC
The National Hurricane Center stressed in its forecast that “this is a life-threatening situation.”
“There is an imminent danger of life-threatening storm surge flooding along much of the Florida west coast, including the Florida Keys, where a Storm Surge Warning is in effect. The threat of catastrophic storm surge flooding is highest along the southwest coast of Florida, where 10 to 15 feet of inundation above ground
level is expected. This is a life-threatening situation,” it said.
It is not only the floods and storm surges that are life threatening, even Irma’s winds are too.
“Irma will bring life-threatening wind impacts to much of Florida regardless of the exact track of the center. Wind hazards from Irma are also expected to spread northward through much of Georgia and portions of South Carolina and Alabama,” the NHC forecast said.
Florida governor Rick Scott said that hurricane Irma is “wider that our entire state.”
He had earlier advised Florida’s inhabitants to evacuate.
Irma could further strengthen-
The NHC said that Irma’s “vertical wind shear” is even increasing.
“Given current trends, some additional strengthening could occur during the next several hours. However, vertical wind shear is increasing over Irma, and the shear is expected to become strong within 24 hours,” its latest forecast issued 6 am. EDT time (6 p.m. Philippine time)
The NHC said that even if Irma made a turn, with the cyclone steered generally “north-northwestward with an increase in forward speed,” the “new NHC forecast is very close to the previous one.”
The eye should move across the Lower Florida Keys in the next few hours,” it said.
“After that, the hurricane’s track almost parallel to the west coast of Florida makes it very difficult to pinpoint exactly where Irma will cross the Florida Gulf coast,” the NHC warned.
(Eagle News Service)