Hurricane Hermine slams Florida’s Big Bend

Florida's hurricane drought is effectively over.

Hurricane Hermine will make landfall overnight in Florida's Big Bend. Hermine will be the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida in 11 years since Wilma hit south Florida in 2005. It is also the first Hurricane to form in the Gulf of Mexico since 2013. The storm intensified to hurricane status as expected Thursday, with 75 mph sustained winds and a well formed eye evident on satellite and radar images.

Hermine has wrapped up into a tightly wound and dangerous Category 1 storm. NOAA's GOES 1 km resolution shows a beautiful, but dangerous symmetrical storm from 23,000 miles up in space. Hermine appears to be forming a compact eye-wall structure, with rings of deep convection firing around the center. That's a clear sign of potentially rapid intensification.

It is possible Hermine could reach Category 2 status before landfall.

Hermine's outer spiral bands were already lashing the coast with heavy rain squalls and high winds Thursday afternoon.

Winds to 80 mph and storm surge of 5 to 8 feet is likely tonight along the coast. You don't see these often, here's the civil emergency message from the Tallahassee NWS.

The latest track forecast for Hermine slams the storm ashore overnight in the Big Bend, then tracks the system through Gerogia and the Carolinas as a vigorous tropical storm.

Heavy rainfall continues to be a major threat with Hermine across the southeast USA.

Bottom line for Florida coast:

East Coast threat

Hermine is still a threat to bring tropical storm conditions to the east coast.

The latest tracks have shifted slightly east, but any small change back west could mean rapidly deteriorating condition along the east coast this weekend.

We'll need to watch the track closely this Labor Day weekend along the east coast.

Stay tuned.