Tropical Storm Helene is producing damaging winds and severe flooding as it moves inland

Tropical Storm Helene is moving inland across the Southeast today, bringing life-threatening flash flooding, potentially record river flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes

Here is Helene now: Helene made landfall about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, with Category 4 winds at 11:10 p.m. EDT Thursday evening.

The tropical storm is currently centered 40 miles east of Macon, Georgia, and is moving quickly north at 30 miles per hour. The maximum sustained wind speed is 70 miles per hour.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has issued tornado warnings from northeast Florida to parts of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Numerous flash flood warnings remain in effect for Georgia and the western Carolinas.

Helene's threats inland

flooding

In the past 48 hours, there have already been more than 150 reports of flooding from northern Florida to western Virginia from Helene and a separate weather system that preceded it.

The greatest risk of flooding remains in the southern Appalachians on Friday. Rainfall from Helene could trigger catastrophic flooding in this region.

The heavy rain and the hilly and mountainous terrain are an ideal breeding ground for destructive, life-threatening rain floods and landslides. Locally major flooding is possible on some rivers, including the French Broad in western North Carolina near Asheville, where it could rival the historic 1916 flood.

Elsewhere, flash flooding could occur, at least locally, across much of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as parts of the middle Mississippi Valley.

Strong wind

Tropical storm warnings remain in effect from parts of Florida into Georgia, eastern Alabama, South Carolina and western North Carolina.

Additional fallen trees and power outages will impact these areas and even cause structural damage.

Wind gusts exceeding 90 miles per hour were recorded this morning in southern Georgia, including near Valdosta, Alma and Douglas. Gusts exceeding 70 mph were observed in Savannah and Augusta, Georgia, as well as Beaufort, South Carolina.

Many landfalling hurricanes also produce a tornado threat to the right, or in this case east, of where the center passes.

The greatest chance of some tornadoes today is in eastern Carolina and southern Virginia

Storm summary

The need to issue tropical storm warnings and hurricane warnings for western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula led the NHC to begin warning of potential Tropical Cyclone Nine in the western Caribbean Sea on September 23.

The following morning, Tropical Storm Helene formed as bands of rain and strong winds swept across Cancún and Cozumel. Helene also produced heavy rain and some tropical squalls over parts of western Cuba.

H​elene then developed into a hurricane over the southern Gulf of Mexico on September 25th and rapidly strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane the evening before landfall on September 26th.

Helene became the second major hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season Thursday afternoon. By early evening, a NOAA Hurricane Hunter mission found that maximum winds had increased to Category 4 intensity.

Helene's center made landfall about 11:10 p.m. EDT Thursday evening about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, with winds of 140 mph, Category 4 intensity and a pressure of 938 millibars, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Helene is the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida, stronger than Idalia in 2023, with winds of 115 miles per hour and a pressure of 950 millibars, a Category 3 landfall and winds of 125 miles per hour like an 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane did.

H​elene is also the third hurricane to make landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida in nearly 13 months. Three of the last five hurricanes to make landfall in the continental United States hit this Big Bend region.

Reports of land storms: The eyewall, where a hurricane's fiercest winds blow, triggered a rare “Extreme Wind Warning,” a high-end warning issued only for eyewalls of Category 3 or stronger hurricanes to warn those in its path warn to seek shelter from these damaging winds as if a tornado warning has been issued.

Flooding in parts of the Tampa Bay area exceeded previous modern records set in Idalia in 2023 or earlier. Clearwater Beach reported inundation of approximately 6.7 feet (above average tide), significantly surpassing the previous record set by the March 1993 superstorm (4.02 feet).

St. Petersburg's level – about 6.1 feet of flooding – also surpassed its previous modern record from Hurricane Elena in 1985.

A gauge in Cedar Key, Florida, reported flooding of over 8.5 feet, much higher than the flooding caused by Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 (6.84 feet).

Also in Ft. Significant flooding was reported. Myers Beach and Naples, where gauges measured 4 to 5 feet of flooding. Water 5 to 6 feet above normal was observed in the Punta Gorda canal system, according to an amateur radio operator.

Wind gusts reached 98 mph in Perry, 84 mph in Cedar Key and 82 mph at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg. Gusts of up to 72 mph at Opa Locka Airport in Miami, 70 mph in Sarasota and 67 mph in Orlando were also recorded.