We should see decreasing clouds during the day today, with highs topping out in the mid to upper 70s. Radar showed the island in the middle of the eye of the hurricane at just before 2 a.m. A watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds, conditions that make outside preparations hard or unsafe. Overall, temperatures remain below average for the next week.
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Presently; it has strengthened into Category 5 hurricane and is located around 50 miles east-northeast of Antigua, moving in the west-northwest direction towards Florida. The storm is moving toward the west-northwest at almost 16 miles per hour (26 km/h), a motion that is expected to continue for the next couple of days, according to the NHC.
Going forward, the hurricane is forecast to move north of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Wednesday afternoon, unleashing strong winds and heavy rain but not making a direct hit.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott also issued several urgent warnings Tuesday.
In Florida, many parts of the state in the south including the highly-populated area of Miami-Dade are being evacuated. Many of our models take Irma up the East side of Florida with an eventual landfall in the Southeastern US. A warning is typically issued 36 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm- force winds, conditions that make outside preparations hard or unsafe. According to a CNN report on October 5, 1995, the storm-by then packing winds below 80 miles per hour-knocked out power to more than 250,000 in the metro area and brought trees crashing down. Folks in Georgia and SC need to be on alert for next Monday and Tuesday.
After Hurricane Harvey brought devastating floods to Texas, the new information about Irma is probably the last thing Americans living in hurricane alley want to hear.
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British Airways sent an empty aircraft to the region, bringing 326 customers back to the United Kingdom, and a Virgin Atlantic flight left Antigua five hours early to avoid the storm.
