Hurricane Ian is continuing its steady progress towards the Florida coastline, touching briefly on Cuba today before taking aim at the Florida west coast just north of Tampa Bay.
Ian is expected to spend only spend a few hours over western Cuba, and little overall change in strength is likely during that time. The center should emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico later this morning, where warm water and generally low vertical wind shear conditions are expected to allow for additional intensification, and the NHC forecast calls for Ian to reach category 4 strength. By 24 to 36 hours, increasing southwesterly vertical wind shear and drier mid-level air are likely to result in some gradual weakening. However, Ian is still expected to be a major hurricane when it reaches the Florida west coast. The official intensity forecast is near the latest simple and corrected multi-model consensus predictions.
Governor Ron De Santis had previously declared a state of emergency (this has become common practice for approaching storms as it allows federal agencies to pre-position resources to deal with the aftermath) and Floridians are being warned of a “major disaster”.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a "state of emergency" for the entire state, with storm conditions "projected to constitute a major disaster."
The National Hurricane Center has advised residents of Cuba, the Florida Keys and the Florida Peninsula to have a hurricane plan in place and to closely follow forecast updates.
Only time will tell how severe or how widespread the storm’s damage will be, or how deeply this will impact both the Florida and the nation’s economy. Already a “worst case” scenario has been avoided as Ian will move well to the east of the major oil and gas production zones in the Gulf.
Jay Powell’s war on inflation may get off fairly easily. Florida is not likely to be half as fortunate.
Now throw in 20-30" of rain predicted in some parts of Florida...