Hurricane Ian’s eyewall is approaching landfall as an almost Category 5 storm. For those on the west coast of Florida who have not evacuated — now is the time to bunker down. On the east coast, if you are under evacuation warnings, Wednesday is the time to leave.
Hurricane Ian poses a catastrophic threat to southwest Florida and a major flood threat to the entire state. As the eye of the storm makes landfall, meteorologists expect to see the most intense storm surges.
Ian intensified over Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with max sustained wind speeds of over 100 MPH. The National Weather Service is predicting over 150 MPF sustained winds throughout the duration of the storm through Friday.
According to Glenn Schwartz — Currently’s Hurricane expert — the eye of this storm is particularly large. While many folks may this the middle of the eye signifies the end of the storm, it’s actually just the halfway mark. Schwartz notes that while the eye can be a time to do minor repairs such as fixing boarded windows — this is not an opportunity to evacuate or venture out to explore damages.
Storm surges on the western coast are forecasted to get up to a maximum of 18 feet. The surges are expected to increase throughout today and peak Wednesday night.
Central Florida is expected to see extreme rain and flooding throughout the next few days. Already over 300,000 people are without power as of 1 PM.
From now until the threat of Hurricane Ian is over, Glenn Schwartz will publish his Hurricane newsletter — Currently in the Atlantic — twice a day, subscribe for in-depth forecasts. Through the duration of the storm Currently is also offering our text a meteorologist service for free.
