CHICAGO (CBS) — Hurricane Helene will be the fourth landfalling U.S. hurricane this year, and is set to bring strong wind gusts unusually far inland Friday and Saturday.
Helene is forecast to make landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida Thursday night as a devastating major hurricane with wind gusts as high as 140 miles per hour. The storm will race inland at an unusually fast forward speed, so even as its access to warm water which serves as hurricane fuel is cut off after landfall, the storm will not have much time to weaken on its journey through the southeastern U.S.
Hurricane warnings are in effect 200 miles inland – nearly to Atlanta, Georgia, where 70 mph wind gusts will be possible Thursday night. As the storm is absorbed into a larger area of low pressure sitting to its west, a tight pressure gradient will lead to strong winds as far north as Illinois and Indiana.
Winds in our area will be strongest along and south of Interstate 80, where gusts may reach 45 mph from 11 a.m. Friday through 7 a.m. Saturday.