Hurricane Irma is still a strong storm with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph sustained winds. The most significant change since this morning is a shifting away from the Carolina coastlines. Irma is now expected to make landfall in South Florida around noon Sunday. Strong winds are expected in the Keys and Miami area beginning Saturday evening. Latest forecast maps show the storm bringing significant rain and damaging winds throughout Florida on Sunday and Monday as the storm tracks to the north. The latest National Weather Service map shows the track of this storm and how it is now expected to be in Tennessee and Kentucky by Tuesday afternoon – avoiding an earlier scenario where it hugged the coast up through Virginia.
While the forecast is more favorable to our listening area, to move the center of the storm track more west of our area, it is still too early to let our guard down. Ed Piotrowski breaks it down: