weather center with the very latest. the new advisory, what does it say tom? well john, we don t have much the way changes except the pressure is dropping. i usually takes a while, when the pressure drops the storm get stronger. so we re gonna notice areas even though the winds have not changed, still 100 miles per hour sustained winds. they will start to increase. now when the pressure drops, the equivalent to a stronger wind pattern. in fact, these are just heat engines. they feed on that warm water. that warm water, then, as a rises up. change the kinetic energy and goes to wind. we are now about 130 miles from the land mass. but typically contracts with olena so break it down. there s already underwent a rapid intensification and will do it again. category four. i thought we had a category four passes close to tampa was in 1950. so there s a lot of people have never been through something like this. and even though john it goes before to a category one, they know attent
weather center and patrick oppmann is in cuba for us. good evening to both of you. petra, i ll start with. you are looking at pictures released today by nasa, a live view of hurricane ian that can be seen from the international space station as it fights over the storm. that is massive. where is hurricane ian right now? what can we expect? don, we just got the advisory here. it s about 1100 miles south of the western tip of cuba. crew the brunt of the storm system is gonna be felt initially in cuba in the coming hours, don, we think this will increase to a category three possibly as early as the next three hours. beyond that, we watch what s in store here. the water temperatures across this region of the gulf of mexico are among the warmest oceanic heat content anywhere in the atlantic. you notice the model of cannons here is a bit all over the place the last couple days. really, the last 24 hours better agreement. the storm track will shift a little further towards the eas
just moments ago making landfall in cuba. the storm is over the island s western tip as a major category 3 hurricane with a storm surge that had been forecast up to 14 feet. within hours ian will bear down on florida s west coast with high winds, heavy rains. what really has officials worried in florida and urgently calling for mass evacuations is a huge storm surge expected to peak tomorrow. tampa bay is pretty shallow and is going to be pushing a phenomenal amount of rain up into our bay. there s really no place for this water to go so the flooding, the surge is going to be monumental. while we talk about tampa bay, we really need to focus on the warned area and why the hurricane center is so worried about storm surge is this is some of the most vulnerable coast line in the united states with high populations. meteorologist pedram javaheri is live in the weather center with the latest update. they ve published a new outlook a minute and a half ago. what are they sayin
sounding the alarm along florida s west coast. people are urged to get out of florida s way. tampa s mayor tells residents if you can leave, just leave now. officials say the tampa region could see a storm of a lifetime. more than 15 million people are expected to feel the impact of ewh e ian when it arrives. 115 hour with the winds and could cause life-threatening storm surge, and storm surge is the biggest concern right now. so far ahead of the storm, the hospital in st. petersburg suspended service, transported patients, schooled and universities closed, at least three cruise lines re-routed passengers. the tampa bay airport will suspend operations at 5:00 p.m. today and nasa moved the artemis rocket back to the hangar for trekz. look at this video showing a steady stream of traffic leaving the tampa bay area monday night heading inland to safety. people hunkering down as well, though. the storm perhaps testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get
they have four shelters opening this morning at this hour here. they can hold about 4,000 people. but the evacuation order right now under way for zone a is about 40,000 people. so they re hoping that they will use those shelters as a last resort and go find family or friends on the east coast of florida or just get out of town. i spoke with the spokesperson for the emergency operations center here in punta gorda and he told me that their motto is hide from wind and run from water. he said a wall of water is not your friend. so you don t want to stick around here in punta gorda. certainly the north of here as you know, there is a lot of concern and the tampa area, the st. peterburg mayor certainly has been voicing his concern saying this could be the storm that they never hoped would come to their shores. and, of course, the director of the national hurricane center saying that this could be the storm of a lifetime and the near worst case scenario for tampa bay and that is be