As of the 5am update from the National Hurricane Center, Florence is still a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and gusts 160-170 mph. The storm is currently about 950 miles from the Carolina coast line, but moving in that direction at about 15 mph. The forecast is for landfall to occur overnight Thursday into Friday morning. The biggest problem now is there is nothing to slow or weaken this storm between now and then. Water temperatures are running in the middle 80s and very little wind to tear it apart. While it may or may not officially become a Category 5 storm, it will still be a major Hurricane at landfall.
Once the storm makes landfall, the threats are far from over. Unfortunately, the forecast is for the storm to stall out and drop a ton of rain in the Carolinas. Upon immediate landfall, the threats are you standard hurricane threats – storm surge, strong winds, tornadoes. However, if the storm does stall, it could drop 10-20″ of rain, leading to flooding well inland.
