It looks like peak hurricane season won’t bother with a soft launch this year: Hurricane Florence, already a Category 4 storm, is expected to hit the East Coast near the Carolinas late this week, the strongest storm to impact the area in three decades.
With winds of over 130mph, Florence was still strengthening as of Monday afternoon. It was 625 miles off the East Coast, moving west at 9mph, according to the National Weather Service. The dangerous storm may cause a life-threatening storm surge, flooding and destructive winds, meteorologists said.
“There is an increasing risk of life-threatening impacts from Florence: storm surge at the coast, freshwater flooding from a prolonged and exceptionally heavy rainfall event inland, and damaging hurricane-force winds,” said the National Hurricane Center. It warned people at the coast and inland from South Carolina to the mid-Atlantic region to be aware of the storm’s path and to ensure they had a hurricane response plan.
When and where Hurricane Florence 2018 will hit
The storm is expected to make landfall late Thursday night or early Friday morning. As of Monday afternoon, Florence was set for a direct collision with North and South Carolina.
How much rain is expected with Hurricane Florence 2018?
Meteorologists expect swells of up to 15 feet at the coast, and one to two feet of rain near where the storm makes landfall.
How will New York be affected by Florence?
It looks like New York City will dodge the storm — a high-pressure system will prevent Florence from curving northward. The forecast calls for only partly cloudy skies on Friday and Saturday, with highs in the mid-70s.
It’s been almost six years since Superstorm Sandy, which hit New Jersey as a post-tropical storm with 80mph winds, flooding 90,000 New York City buildings and causing $70 billion in damage.
How about Hurricane Isaac?
The next storm in the Atlantic behind Florence is Hurricane Isaac. It is weaker, with winds of 115mph, and is not expected to pose the same threat. Isaac is on course to impact the Caribbean this weekend.
