Helene Rapidly Intensifies Into Hurricane On Its Path Toward Florida

Helene quickly strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday (September 25) as it entered the extremely warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It is the fifth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

As of 2 p.m. ET, Helene had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and was moving north-northwest toward the Florida coast at about 10 mph. The storm's center was about 480 miles south-southwest of Tampa.

Hurricane Helene is forecast to become a Category 3 storm before making landfall on Thursday. The National Hurricane Center said that Helene is "expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding rains to a large portion of Florida and the southeastern United States."

Some of the biggest impacts from the storm will be felt along the Big Bend area of the state, with storm surges of up to 15 feet. Further south, Helene could cause up to eight feet of storm surge in Tampa and five feet in other coastal areas south of the city.

Thousands of people have fled ahead of the storm as evacuation orders have been issued in 15 counties across the state.