Hurricane Florence strengthened into a Major Hurricane on Monday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Florence was located at latitude 25.9\u00b0N and longitude 62.4\u00b0W which put it about 1085 miles (1745 km) east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina.\u00a0 Florence was moving toward the west-northwest at 13 m.p.h. (20 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 140 m.p.h. (220 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 165 m.p.h. (270 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 944 mb.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Florence intensified rapidly on Monday morning and early afternoon.\u00a0 An eye with a diameter of 18 miles (29 km) formed at the center of circulation.\u00a0 A ring of strong thunderstorms surrounded the eye and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Several bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the core of Hurricane Florence.\u00a0 Storms near the core were generating strong upper level divergence which pumped mass away from the hurricane.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Florence increased in size on Monday.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extended out about 40 miles (65 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 150 miles (240 km) from the center.\u00a0 The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Florence was 28.2.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 14.0 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 42.2.\u00a0 Hurricane Florence was capable of causing extensive significant damage.<\/p>\n
Microwave satellite imagery indicated that an inner rainband may have wrapped around the original eye and eyewall.\u00a0 An eyewall replacement cycle may have begun and that may have halted the rapid intensification of Hurricane Florence.\u00a0 Florence could weaken during the next few hours while the inner eyewall weakens.\u00a0 Hurricane Florence will move through an area capable of supporting strong hurricanes on Tuesday and Wednesday.\u00a0 Florence will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move through an area where the upper level winds are weak and there will be little vertical wind shear.\u00a0 If the inner eyewall dissipates during the next day or so, then Hurricane Florence could strengthen again.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Florence will move around the western end of the subtropical high pressure system during the next several days.\u00a0 The high will steer Florence toward the west-northwest.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Hurricane Florence will approach the coast of North Carolina on Thursday afternoon.\u00a0 The winds steering Florence could weaken as it approaches the coast and the track forecast becomes much more uncertain at that time.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Isaac were spinning over the tropical Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Helene was located at latitude 15.5\u00b0N and longitude 32.4\u00b0W which put it about 1590 miles (2555 km) south of the Azores.\u00a0 Helen was moving toward the west-northwest at 12 m.p.h. (19 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 968 mb.<\/p>\n
At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Monday the center of Tropical Storm Isaac was located at latitude 14.5\u00b0N and longitude 46.9\u00b0W which put it about 960 miles (1550 km) east of the Lesser Antilles.\u00a0 Isaac was moving toward the west at 16 m.p.h. (26 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 70 m.p.h. (110 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 85 m.p.h. (135 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 997 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hurricane Florence strengthened into a Major Hurricane on Monday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Florence was located at latitude 25.9\u00b0N and longitude 62.4\u00b0W which put it about 1085 miles (1745 km) east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina.\u00a0 Florence was moving toward the west-northwest at 13 m.p.h. (20 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum […]<\/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":[154,172,491,156,171,492,318,1239,505,497,1209,51,98,1232,1223,1237,650,1234,20,496,507,123,206,100,506,99,1238,213],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609"}],"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=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}