Tracking Helene
Hello Suncoast! Meteorologist Eric Kasunich here with a tropical update
Today we are starting out pretty quiet. Some might call this the calm before the storm as we will see the first impacts from Helene this afternoon. Helene is currently in between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba with max winds of 80mph, moving northeast at 9mph. The forecast is calling for landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend region as a category 3. We will mostly be affected by the outer bands of the storm with tropical storm force winds and heavy downpours at times. The rain will be heavy, but the accumulated values will not be that high. Over the next five days you can expect 3-6". The biggest threat will be storm surge from 4-7 feet along the coast and the strongest impacts will take place between 11AM and 11PM tomorrow as well as power outages. Storm surge threat could last until Friday morning when the winds turn on shore.