Hurricane Helene just hours away from landfall

Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir Simpson Wind Scale, is just hours away from making a historic landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida. Florida has dealt with plenty of category 4 hurricanes before, but not this specific region of Florida.

The Big Bend area of Florida is highly susceptible to extreme storm surge, even in lower end hurricanes. For a major hurricane such as Helene to impact the area, the effects could be catastrophic and devastating.

Winds are roughly 130 mph sustained! This means that the winds are blowing at this speed at a constant rate! Makes even our windiest days here in southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa seem like nothing! Additional strengthening is likely up until Helene makes landfall around 10-11PM tonight. Storm surge could reach up to 20 feet, which means areas along the immediate coastline could be under 20 feet of water as Helene rages ashore.

Helene is a very fast moving hurricane. Because of this, it will be able to make it further inland as a significant tropical cyclone. In fact, the National Hurricane Center states that Helene may still be a category 2 hurricane with winds of 105 mph in south central Georgia, and as far north as Atlanta, Georgia! Hurricanes typically weaken extremely quickly after making landfall, so for Helene to maintain this intensity so far inland…it isn’t commonly heard of to say the least.

Flash flooding, tornadoes, and damaging winds will remain a threat as far north as Ohio over the next few days. Helene’s impacts will certainly not end once it makes landfall. The remnants of the storm are expected to stall over the Mid-Mississippi River Valley through the weekend, bringing potentially flooding rains to portions of Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and southern Ohio.