After initially strengthening to a Category 4 storm overnight, Idalia made landfall in Florida early Wednesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds, says the National Hurricane Center.
According to the agency's special advisory, Idalia made landfall at around 7:45 a.m. in the Bid Bend area near Keaton Beach, bringing "catastrophic" storm surge to the region.
Idalia's drop in intensity was due to the storm going through what the NHC called an "eyewall replacement cycle," which is a natural cycle process where a storm begins to form a new eye.
“This change in wind speed does not diminish the threat of catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds,” said the NHC, warning that storm surge could get as high as 12-16 feet, and already surpassed 6 feet in Cedar Key.
Idalia is expected to move quickly across the Florida peninsula today, with large bands continuing to impact the state into the afternoon.
As of now, forecasters say Tampa Bay could still see between 4-6 feet of storm surge. Coastal areas in Hillsborough and Pinellas County are already seeing rising waters.
Meanwhile, thousands of Tampa Bay residents woke up without power Wednesday, with Duke Energy customers reporting over 23,000 outages in Pinellas County.
Tampa Bay area is currently under a tornado watch until 3 p.m, which means residents could see isolated gusts up to 75 mph, hail, and a "few tornados likely." Creative Loafing Tampa Bay will keep an updated list of local shelters, sandbag locations and closures here.
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Idalia officially makes landfall in Florida as 'catastrophic' Category 3 storm
Idalia is expected to move quickly across the Florida peninsula today, with large bands continuing to impact the state into the afternoon.
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About The Author
Colin Wolf
Colin Wolf has been working with weekly newspapers since 2007 and has been the Digital Editor for Creative Loafing Tampa since 2019. He is also the Director of Digital Content Strategy for CL's parent company, Chava Communications.
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