Hurricane Florence has just rapidly intensified from a Category 2 to a Category 4 in just under 2 hours, making the threat to the East Coast even more real. Mandatory evacuations have been declared across the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts, with hurricane warnings also issued in some areas. Storm surges are expected to be above 10 feet in some areas, and there is a potential for multiple feet of rain in the next few days. All things considered, and the area where this hurricane is hitting, there is potential for a devastating hurricane for an area that does not get too many. If the storm stalls out, rain could fall heavily for more than a week across a wide area, and this storm comes just on the heels of a sever string of thunderstorms that brought heavy rain all throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. The storm is expected to make landfall as a Category 4 in North Carolina, unless there is a radical change in the storm out.

Hopefully, this storm will weaken and turn out a little bit more to the Atlantic to reduce the impact on the East Coast. For fun, here is a picture of the massive Hurricane Florence taken from the International Space Station.