Hurricane Florence Intensifies As It Barrels Toward US East Coast

United States east coast is bracing for Hurricane Florence.

Hurricane Florence isn’t the only storm churning in the Atlantic Ocean. NASA’s Aqua satellite caught Hurricane Florence developing an eye Sunday as the storm ramped up its intensity. The storm has rapidly intensified and reached “major hurricane” classification on Monday morning (with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, making it a Category 4), although eyes are also on Isaac and Helene for the future.

Forecasters say Florence will pass between Bermuda and the Bahamas on Tuesday and Wednesday and start its approach to the USA on Thursday morning.

It’s not just North Carolina that is “taking Hurricane Florence seriously”, either, in SC and Virginia residents have also declared states of emergency following the updates on the storm.

Over in the Pacific, this storm is still moving toward Hawaii, where tropical storm warnings and watches have been issued, the hurricane center said.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says Florence has the makings of an “extremely dangerous” meteorological event, the BBC reports.

Given the storm’s expected track and path, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia have already declared states of emergency as authorities prepare to deal with Hurricane Florence. Significant storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding will all be threats as the storm approaches the coast. Tropical storms generate winds between 39 and 73 miles per hour, just below hurricane force. “Flooding is the deadliest result of these storms”. The Navy planned to send ships from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia out to sea.

Hazel also wreaked havoc on Southern Ontario, dumping over 200 milimetres of rain on Toronto alone, while packing winds over 100 km/h.

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this infrared image of Hurricane Florence on September 9, 2018, at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 UTC) using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for residents of Hatteras Island and some other areas of Dare County in North Carolina.

In a tweet Monday, President Donald Trump urged the “incredible citizens” of the Carolinas and the East Coast to prepare for Hurricane Florence.

Large swells generated by Florence are already affecting Bermuda and portions of the East Coast and will continue this week.

By 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) on Monday, Florence was about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) east-southwest of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and was a Category 4, the second-strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the NHC said.

“As we have seen with hurricanes in most recent years, such as Lane in Hawaii earlier this summer and Harvey last year in Texas, feet of rain can fall when these tropical storms stall”, Sosnowski said.