UH OH

Hurricane Florence Could Hit the East Coast Next Week

Its maximum sustained wind speed to date has been 130 mph.

Meteorologists are now predicting that Florence—which was the first major hurricane of the 2018 season but has since weakened to a tropical storm—will strengthen again into a hurricane early next week and move dangerously close to the East Coast in the days that follow. CNN reported Friday that only two days ago, Florence’s winds reached up to 13o miles per hour, making it a Category 4 hurricane. Due to increased wind shear over the Atlantic, the storm was later downgraded, but now that the wind shear is fading, the storm is picking up speed once more. This has led meteorologists to predict that Florence will regain its status as a hurricane early next week, just as it moves into striking distance of the Eastern United States. CNN notes that it’s still too early to know if Florence will hit U.S. shores or safely turn back to sea, although evidence suggests that it will come close enough to produce some kind of meteorological impact.