'Everyone Has To Prepare': South Florida Holds Breath Waiting To See Where Hurricane Dorian May Land
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Hurricane Dorian is now forecast to become a powerful category 4 storm. As it continues to move northwest, the concern now is how far north will it get before it runs into high pressure and makes a right turn.
The latest advisory at 5:00 p.m. Thursday is also forecasting a much slower storm. A slower storm will give people more time to prepare, but unfortunately a slower moving storm over the ocean means Dorian will get stronger.
"Miami and Fort Lauderdale sit at between 25.75 and 26.1 degrees North," says CBS4 Meteorologist Dave Warren. "With each advisory we will be looking at how much latitude is gained and the present movement. Once the storm starts turning west, which is forecast, it will give us a good idea as to what part of the coast is at risk."
Forecast models and the official track from the National Hurricane Center have continued to forecast this turn occurring sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
"Not only do you focus on what the storm is doing, but also the weather patterns around it that can steer the storm," says Warren.
In Dorian's case, it is an area of high pressure that builds in and starts to push the storm to the west right towards the Florida Coast.
The computer forecasts have shown a number of possibilities with a few leading to landfall as far south as Broward County, while others have Dorian making landfall somewhere near Georgia.
"A wide range of possibilities leads to uncertainty in a forecast," says Warren. "It just means everyone has to prepare initially before you begin to get a better idea of where landfall may occur." He added.
For at least the next 24 to 48 hours the numbers to watch will be the latitude and the movement.
The farther north the storm gets before it turns west means the chance of a direct hit to south Florida will go down.
Once that turn is made then the concern will be how big and how strong the storm will become as it moves over a very favorable environment for development off the coats.
- Click here to prepare yourself for an impending storm
- Click here for latest news surrounding hurricanes and the National Hurricane Center
- Click here to see all of the latest maps when a storm forms in the Atlantic
- Click here to download the CBS4 2019 Hurricane Guide (English)
- Click here to download the CBS4 2019 Hurricane Guide (Spanish)
- Download the CBS4 Weather App Here
