Hurricane Irma Now Battering Florida

Now with its circulation over Central Florida, Hurricane Irma is still a category 2 storm. Irma made landfall shortly after 3:30pm eastern time. At landfall, Irma had 120mph sustained winds, gusting well over 135mph. 

Reports are coming in from Marco Island (where the storm officially made landfall) and the greater Naples area, that damage from the winds is widespread, and the storm surge also caused lots of damage. According to a Marco resident, the storm surge overtook much of the island within 45 minutes. During the first eyewall, the winds coming from the east caused the Gulf waters to recede. Then within the low pressure and calm winds of the eye, the waters returned to a bit higher than normal. Within the next half hour, the sea level rose to 5-7 feet.

As of 9pm EDT, Duke Power in Central Florida had over 280,000 customers without power. Outages were skewed to densely populated areas and especially regions nearest the coast. Even though many power lines are buried in many areas, the storm surge and flooding is able to cut the power. No estimate has been given as to when power will be restored.

Along the Atlantic Coast, over 50 tornado warnings have been issued as thunderstorms stream off the ocean with significant rotation. The storm is clearly weakening, with the eye filling in with clouds and rain. You can follow the satellite view on the following webpage…

Irma will continue north along the Florida peninsula, with winds in excess of 100mph through this evening. Eventually the storm will weaken in North Florida to a Category 1 hurricane. As the storm turns northeast, it will likely be downgraded to a tropical storm, with winds lower than 74mph at most. Eventually, the storm system will begin to dissipate next week and turn northeast where it will pass throuh the Midwest and Great Lakes, with very little impact beyond rain and winds up to 30mph.