Hurricane Florence Made Landfall Friday Sep 14,2018

Florence made landfall on Friday Sep 14,2018, with the centre of the storm striking Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina, with gales of up to 90mph (150 km/h).

The National Hurricane Center says that despite the gradual lowering in wind strength, the storm remains extremely dangerous because of the high volume of rainfall and storm surges predicted.

Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have declared a state of emergency as forecasts showed Florence dumping historic amounts of rain on the area.

Florence originated from a strong tropical wave that emerged off the west coast of Africa on August 30. Steady organization resulted in the formation of a tropical depression on the next day near Cape Verde. Progressing along a steady west-northwest trajectory, the system acquired tropical storm strength on September 1, and fluctuated in strength for several days over open ocean. An unexpected bout of rapid intensification ensued on September 4–5, culminating with Florence becoming a Category 4 major hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale with estimated maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 km/h). Thereafter, environmental conditions tore the storm apart, and Florence degraded to a tropical storm by September 7. Shifting steering currents led to a westward turn into a more suitable environment; the system regained hurricane strength on September 9 and major hurricane status by the following day. At 16:00 UTC on September 10, Florence again became a Category 4 hurricane, later reaching a new peak intensity with winds of 140 mph (220 km/h) and a central pressure of 939 mbar (27.7 inHg). Afterwards, Florence weakened slightly as it underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, but began to restrengthen late on September 11. However, early on September 13, the storm weakened to a Category 2 hurricane, due to exposure to moderate wind shear, but the storm's wind field expanded during this time. On the evening of September 13 it was downgraded to Category 1. Early the next day on September 14, Florence made landfall just south of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.