Florence makes landfall as a CAT1!

Slow moving, deadly Florence has been whipping eastern North Carolina with intense heavy rain bands and damaging winds. Early this morning, Florence has finally crawled to the shoreline over Wrightsville Beach, NC as a strong CAT1:

Moving almost stationary for the past several hours, Florence has come ashore. We have seen numerous reports of over 20" inches of rain well ahead of Florence coming ashore and we will see additional feet of rainfall to come. Yikes. We have also see wind gusts over 105mph in Wilmington and in many other areas along the coast. We have also seen the storm pounding the coast with over 8-10 feet of storm surge and many houses along the coast are devastated. Most of this area has lost power and it may take a few days to get it back.

Right now the storm looks like its drifting to the west to south west which should put South Carolina in the crosshairs throughout the day. Expect over 60-70mph wind gusts and heavy rainfall. Storm surge in South Carolina shouldn't too much of a problem considering most of the wind is blowing offshore so thats good news. The wind and rain will be though, so be careful going outside.

Now that Florence is over land we should see the winds weakening rather quickly but unfortunately the rain will still be an issue. The tornado threat is also possible with the outer rain bands north of the center of Florence. These tornados are usually brief but powerful so be careful trying to go outside. A few warnings have popped up and will continue throughout the day as well so it would be wise to listen for warnings in your area.

Hope everyone is safe out there!