Florence is a Category 4 storm and could reach Category 5 intensity as it heads towards the Carolinas.
The satellite loop below shows a closeup of the eye of Hurricane Florence as of midday on September 10, 2018.
Hurricane Florence continues to strengthen in the Atlantic basin, and has 130 mph winds as of this writing. Florence is shaping up to be an intense hurricane, and could potentially reach Category 5 status. The satellite image above shows a closeup of the eye of the storm. You can view some excellent global satellite imagery from GOES 16 and zoom in on Florence here on the CSU RAMMB website. Note that GOES 16 is in a geostationary orbit and so always looks at the same side of the earth, day and night. You can select other satellites to view data over the Pacific or other areas from one of the menu options on the RAMMB page.
The plot below shows the projected track of Florence as of midday on September 10, 2018. This forecast track is from WDT, Inc., my current employer. You can visit WDT WeatherOps for a trial of various weather forecast products, including tropical forecast products. The current expectation is that Florence will track towards the coast of North Carolina, possibly near the Wilmington area by late this week. However, the exact landfall location remains uncertain. Of significant concern is that Florence will likely stall out either right before or after landfall, which could lead to extremely heavy rainfall and severe flooding wherever the storm stalls out. Coastal areas will be dealing with the strong winds as well as what will likely be a very high storm surge given that the storm may make landfall perpendicular to the coast, which maximizes water rises.
For more updates on Florence, try following WDT's twitter feed at: https://twitter.com/WeatherDecTech/
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