Here’s How to Follow Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma is projected to make landfall in Florida on Sunday morning, but the unpredictable storm’s path is also currently scheduled to hit multiple states including South Carolina and Georgia.

As a result, many are evacuating their homes, and mandatory evacuations have been issued in some areas as well. The New York Times reports that the storm has already made history, as its winds are the strongest ever recorded in the open Atlantic Ocean and held at 185 miles an hour for 24 hours.

Read on to find out how to track the potentially devastating storm.

National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center has been issuing full advisories on Irma every six hours, and also has a five-day forecast. The forecasts include the hurricane’s center and its surrounding cone of possible influence, as the storm’s effects will be felt far beyond its center.

The center shares that the track of the storm stays within the cone about 60 percent to 70 percent of the time, although it’s very possible Irma’s path will change.

Satellite images

Thanks to social media, satellite images of the storm are readily available, and are an easy way to see where the hurricane is currently positioned and how it looks. The two types of satellite imagery include infrared, which shows the temperature of the storm’s cloud tops, and “visible,” which is how the storm looks to the naked eye.

Stronger storms have cold cloud tops, as they are high in the atmosphere, and infrared images of Irma clearly show colder temperatures around the ring of the storm.

The GOES-16 satellite is currently tracking Irma, and can be viewed here. The satellite map shows Irma’s current position as well as any land masses it currently hovers over.

Visible satellite imagery

The visible photos show swirls of fluffy white clouds hovering menacingly over the Caribbean, the eye of the storm still clear. The clouds currently appear uniform, typical of a Category 5 hurricane, although that may change over the next few days.

Potential paths

Irma is currently forecasted to near the southeast coast of Florida before possibly heading up the coast to South Carolina and Georgia. It is also possible that the storm will head west into the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo Credit: Twitter / @EricHolthaus