Nicole is forecast to make landfall as a hurricane in Florida tonight into early Thursday morning.
The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center puts Tropical Storm Nicole about 240 miles (385 kilometers) east of West Palm Beach, Florida, moving to the west-southwest at 13 mph (20 kph). Nicole has sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) with higher gusts.
Nicole is on track to hit the Bahamas first about midday and will be the first storm to make landfall in the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a devastating Category 5 storm that hit the archipelago in 2019.
In the Bahamas, according to the Associated Press, officials said early Wednesday that only a few people were in the more than two dozen shelters that opened. “We are asking people to please take it (seriously),” said Andrea Newbold with the Disaster Management Unit for Social Services. “Don’t wait until the last minute.”
Nicole forecast track
Nicole is expected to make a turn toward the west today, followed by a turn to the northwest on Thursday, and north or northeast on Friday. Nicole’s center is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia Thursday and Thursday night, and then across the Carolinas Friday and Friday night.
Nicole is forecast to intensify and hit the Bahamas as a Category 1 hurricane and will remain a hurricane when it reaches the east coast of Florida tonight.
Watches and warnings
A hurricane warning has been issued for areas near Florida’s Atlantic coast from Boca Raton to the Flagler – Volusia County line, including Melbourne and Vero Beach.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect for a broad area of southern, central, and northern Florida to portions of the Georgia and South Carolina coasts.
Radar is showing an increase in rain showers as Nicole pushes toward Florida, and large, pounding waves and coastal flooding are also impacting much of the Southeast coast. As of Wednesday morning, water levels were running two feet above normal at Port Canaveral.
A storm surge warning is in effect from North Palm Beach, Florida, to Glynn County, Georgia, as well as a stretch of the St. Johns River in northeast Florida from Georgetown to where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean north of Jacksonville Beach.
The NHC and Weather.com remind everyone that Nicole’s large size means its impacts will spread far from its center, arriving sooner than, and lasting longer than, the passage of its center.
And while Nicole is expected to lose some intensity after making landfall over Florida, the storm is not finished. What’s left of Nicole, which will probably be downgraded to a post-tropical storm, will then be picked up by a cold front that turns the storm northeastward over the Southeast states on Friday.
The remnant energy and moisture from Nicole will team up with that cold front to wring out heavy rain up the East Coast into Saturday. Soaking rain is expected for the Appalachians, mid-Atlantic, and Northeast Friday into Saturday.
