Florida and the Carribean’s Hurricane season continues…
Hurricane Nicole is bringing high winds and coastal flooding to eastern Florida while raking the northwest Bahamas with heavy rains and storm surge flooding.
Threat level: The storm is bringing damaging storm surge flooding along the east coast of Florida, north to Georgia and South Carolina, along with heavy rain and damaging winds after being upgraded to a hurricane at 6pm, while 105 miles east of West Palm Beach.
The latest: The center of the storm was about 75 miles east-northeast of West Palm Beach as of 10pm Wednesday ET. It was moving west-northwest at 13mph, with maximum sustained winds of 75mph.
- Shortly before noon, Nicole made landfall on Great Abaco Island.
State of play: Coastal flooding, tropical storm force winds and heavy rains are buffeting much of the state of Florida, with flooding and gusty winds also in Georgia and coastal South Carolina. A weather observing station at Lake Worth Pier, Florida, recorded a wind gust to 59 mph this afternoon.
Of note: If Nicole does hit Florida as a hurricane, as is forecast, it would be the latest in the season that such a storm has hit the state. In fact, even if it is a strong tropical storm, it may rank as one of the top 5 strongest storms to hit the U.S. so late in the season….
image…The 4 p.m. projected track of Tropical Storm Nicole.(WWSB-TV)