The center of Hurricane Irma made landfall on the coast at Marco Island, Florida on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 The Marco Island Emergency Operations Center reported a wind gust to 135 m.p.h. (217 km\/h) when the northern portion of the eyewall passed over.\u00a0 The airport at Naples, Florida reported sustained winds to 88 m.p.h. (142 km\/h) and wind gusts to 135 m.p.h. (217 km\/h).<\/p>\n
At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday the center of Hurricane Irma was located at latitude 26.2\u00b0N and longitude 81.8\u00b0W which put it about 5 miles (10 km) north of Naples, Florida.\u00a0 Irma was moving toward the north at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 110 m.p.h. (175 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 130 m.p.h. (210 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 938 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Warning was in effect for the portion of the coast from Fernandina Beach to Indian Pass, Florida including the Florida Keys and Lake Okeechobee.\u00a0 A Hurricane Watch was in effect from Fernandina Beach, Florida to Edisto Beach, South Carolina.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning was in effect for the portion of the coast from Fernandina Beach, Florida to the South Santee River, South Carolina and from Indian Pass, Florida to the Okaloosa\/Walton County line.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Watch was in effect for Bimini and Grand Bahama Island.<\/p>\n
The intensity of Hurricane Irma decreased gradually on Sunday.\u00a0 The hurricane began to pull in some drier air over the southeastern U.S. into the west side of the circulation.\u00a0 In addition an upper level trough over the eastern U.S. caused an increase in the vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The drier air and increased shear also produced a more asymmetrical wind field around Hurricane Irma.\u00a0 The area of stronger winds was much larger in the eastern half of the circulation than it was on the western half of the circulation.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extended out 80 miles (130 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 220 miles (350 km) from the center.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Irma will gradually weaken as it moves northward over Florida.\u00a0 Irma is a large hurricane and it will spin down slowly.\u00a0 Hurricane Irma will move steadily northward.\u00a0 Irma is forecast to still be a hurricane when the center moves near Tampa and Central Florida.\u00a0 Hurricane Irma is capable of causing widespread significant wind damage.\u00a0 Isolated tornadoes could develop in thunderstorms in the outer rainbands.\u00a0 Hurricane Irma will produce storm surges over a long section of the coast.\u00a0 There was not much surge on the west coast of Florida on Sunday afternoon, because the winds were blowing the water away from the coast.\u00a0 However, after the center moves north of an area, the wind will blow from the opposite direction and the water will rise quickly at the coast.\u00a0 A station on the coast near Naples, Florida reported a water rise of six feet (two meters) in less than two hours after the center of Hurricane passed to the east.\u00a0 Easterly winds on the eastern fringe of Hurricane Irma were blowing the water toward the coast and there were water rises from Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina.\u00a0 Strong southwesterly winds were still causing storm surges in the Florida Keys.\u00a0 Hurricane Irma will also drop heavy rain over a prolonged period and it could cause freshwater flooding of rivers and streams.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere over the tropical Atlantic Hurricane Jose moved away from the northern Leeward Islands on Sunday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT om Sunday the center of Hurricane Jose was located at latitude 22.8\u00b0N and longitude 66.9\u00b0W which put it about 285 miles (455 km) east-northeast of Grand Turk Island.\u00a0 Jose was moving toward northwest at 16 m.p.h. (26 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 120 m.p.h. (195 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 140 m.p.h. (225 km\/h).\u00a0 Hurricane Jose is forecast to stall over the tropical Atlantic east of the Bahamas and it could make a long slow loop during the next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The center of Hurricane Irma made landfall on the coast at Marco Island, Florida on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 The Marco Island Emergency Operations Center reported a wind gust to 135 m.p.h. (217 km\/h) when the northern portion of the eyewall passed over.\u00a0 The airport at Naples, Florida reported sustained winds to 88 m.p.h. (142 km\/h) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[208,269,205,268,384,145,51,98,801,808,100,99,117,97],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4770,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769\/revisions\/4770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}