TAMPA, Florida — Hurricane Irma made its presence felt across Florida and the broader Southeast on Sunday night, September 10, 2017, with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and a center location at 27.5 degrees North, 81.9 degrees West as of the 11 PM EDT Advisory 48 from the National Hurricane Center. The storm was moving north at 14 mph, with its track projected to carry it through Georgia and into Tennessee and Kentucky before weakening into a depression by Wednesday.
What the Cone Does Not Tell You
One of the most dangerous misconceptions about any hurricane forecast is that the cone represents the size of the storm. It does not. The cone shows only the probable path of the storm center. Deadly hazards extend well outside the cone in every direction, including far inland and in areas that never see the center pass overhead. Hurricane Irma demonstrated this directly, with a wind field that stretched well beyond the cone boundaries at every stage of its track…