Hurricane Ian Heads Toward Florida, Parts of Tampa Ordered to Evacuate

Tropical Storm Ian strengthened right into a category 1 hurricane early Monday morning, with sustained winds reaching 80 mph on its strategy to western Cuba. It’s projected to achieve extra drive, changing into a significant storm (with winds over 111 mph), and make landfall on the island later right this moment earlier than persevering with on a path toward Florida’s Gulf coast.

As of writing, Hurricane Ian is positioned about 240 miles southeast of the western tip of Cuba and 100 miles west of Grand Cayman Island. Parts of Florida are already beneath a number of severe weather alerts, together with a tropical storm warning for the decrease Florida Keys, a tropical storm watch masking a lot of the peninsula, and a storm surge watch stretching from Miami to Tampa. Tampa and close by areas are additionally beneath a hurricane watch.

Ian is predicted to go close to the Florida Keys late Tuesday and make landfall just north of Tampa between Wednesday and Thursday, in keeping with U.S. and European climate fashions. Tampa and the northwest components of Florida’s coast have been spared main hurricanes for the past century, however Ian might mark an finish to that lengthy interval of relative calm.

The National Weather Service warns that prime tides from the storm, which might precede the precise hurricane-force winds and rainfall, carry the “possibility of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland.” The worst of the storm surges are forecast to hit the shoreline surrounding Tampa, from Anclote River to Bonita Beach, the place peak surge could possibly be up to 8 feet.

In preparation for the projected floods and coming storm, components of Tampa and Hillsborough County closest to the coast are beneath necessary evacuation orders.

The storm is forecast to carry 6 to 10 inches of rainfall to Cuba, with smaller pockets of localized downpours dropping as much as 16. In Florida, the Keys are anticipated to get 4 to six inches, whereas Central West Florida is projected to get 8 to 10 inches, with some spots receiving as much as 16 inches.

All that new rainfall mixed with the already saturated state of central Florida might result in “considerable flooding impacts,” later this week, reports NOAA. The company is warning of a mix of flash floods, city flooding, and “prolonged and significant river flooding.”