A late-season storm threatens to pound Florida’s East Coast with heavy rain, harsh winds and flooding, even as the Sunshine State grapples with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian’s rampage, which made landfall Sept. 28 as a Category 4 hurricane.
The subtropical storm was named Nicole Monday morning and predictions are it could be a hurricane by the time it hits Florida, probably sometime late Wednesday into Thursday, before moving up the East Coast.
Nicole has the potential to be what CNN calls a “rare November hurricane.” The article said that the last time a hurricane struck the United States in November was Hurricane Kate in 1985.
Hurricane watches are already in place for the Bahamas and Florida, The Washington Post is reporting, “from the Volusia-Brevard county line, which is near Titusville on the Space Coast, to Hallandale Beach, which is just north of Miami.”
Tropical storm watches cover the entirety of Florida and Georgia’s southern coast.
The National Hurricane Center posted on Facebook that Nicole is expected to be a big storm that delivers “widespread impacts from a prolonged period of coastal flooding, tropical-storm-force winds, heavy rainfall, rough surf and rip currents, and beach erosion” regardless of its exact path.
Parts of Florida are still soaked from Ian, which hit in late September, killing at least 120 there and leaving many without water or electricity, as well as decimating some structures.
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, which are both U.S. territories, were under a flash flood watch Monday.
CNN said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was urging residents to take precautions as Nicole approaches. But the storm isn’t expected to disrupt Election Day. Instead, most of the Florida panhandle can expect “breezy to gusty” conditions and a growing chance of rain.