Hurricane Florence now a Category 2 as it nears Carolinas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The path of Hurricane Florence is still set squarely on the Carolinas, but the storm continued to weaken throughout Wednesday, and was downgraded to a Category 2 and remained that way as of 11 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

Winds were in the 110 mph range, and Florence is still close to being a Category 4, the National Hurricane Center said. A Category 2 is 96110 mph; a Category 3 is 111 to 129 mph; and a Category 4 is 130 to 156 mph.

Little change in speed is expected until the “center reaches the coast, with weakening expected after it moves inland,” according to the NHC.

Changes in the storm's strength are possible through this morning, according to the NHC, and though the storm may slowly weaken late today, Florence “is still forecast to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane” when it nears the coast.

As of 11 p.m. EDT, Hurricane Florence was 280 miles away from Wilmington, N.C., and 325 miles off of Myrtle Beach, S.C., according to the NHC.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles from the center of Florence. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 195 miles.

The NHC reported that Hurricane Florence is expected to take a turn to the westnorthwest at an even slower forward speed on Thursday.

The “probable” forecast path for Florence as of 11 p.m. Wednesday showed the storm shifting farther toward the southern North Carolina coast and the northern half of the South Carolina coast, with the forecast cone

stretching into Georgia, western North Carolina and Tennessee, according to the NHC.

Once it makes landfall, the current forecast path shows the storm making a turn even farther south toward southern South Carolina and Georgia around Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center was reporting waves within the storm are 83 feet high, and rainfall projections for coastal North Carolina are in the 20- to 40-inch range.

The first projections of tornadoes have also been released, with the National Hurricane Center reporting “a few tornadoes are possible in eastern North Carolina beginning late Thursday morning.”

Storm surge is also expected to produce “life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, during the next 36 hours in the indicated locations,” said the National Hurricane Center.

The ocean is moving inland as storm surge begins to flood the Carolinas coast, according to the NHC.