Hurricane Nicole Makes Landfall In Florida—Here’s Where It’s Headed

Topline

Hurricane Nicole made landfall on Florida’s east coast early Thursday morning as a Category 1 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center—though it was quickly downgraded back to a tropical storm an hour later—bringing sustained wind, rain and power outages to Florida as the state still continues to recover from Hurricane Ian.

People check-out the waves at Causeway Beach Park before Hurricane Nicole makes landfall in Jensen … [+] Beach, Florida on November 9.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Nicole made landfall on Florida’s North Hutchinson Island, south of Vero Beach, with estimated maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, the NHC reported at 3:00 a.m. Eastern time Thursday.

The NHC then updated at 4:00 a.m. to say Nicole was now a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour.

The storm is expected to move through central Florida Thursday toward the Gulf of Mexico, and will then move across the Florida Panhandle and Georgia Thursday night into Friday, the NHC reported as of 4:00 a.m.

The storm is expected to continue to weaken as it moves inland, and central and northern Florida are expected to receive three to five inches of rain (maximum eight inches), while some parts of the Florida coast could receive up to five feet of storm surge and tornadoes are possible in parts of the state through early Thursday morning.

Flooding had already been reported in Florida last night ahead of Nicole’s arrival, according to local news reports, and some areas were under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders ahead of the storm, along with some buildings that had already suffered structural damage from Hurricane Ian.

More than 40 Florida counties are under a state of emergency, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an emergency declaration earlier this week and then amended it Wednesday to include an additional 11 counties.

Big Number

63,619. That’s the number of customers in Florida without power as of 3:50 a.m. Eastern time, according to PowerOutage.us.

What To Watch For

Americans in more northern states will also see rainfall from Nicole as the storm moves inland and weakens, with the NHC projecting the southeast, southern Appalachians and western mid-Atlantic region will receive two to four inches of rain through Saturday, including eastern parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Northern mid-Atlantic states and New England will receive one to four inches of rain.

Surprising Fact

Nicole is the first hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. in November since Hurricane Kate in 1985, CNN notes.

Tangent

The mandatory evacuation orders for Hurricane Nicole include former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach County—which is already currently closed to guests—but the Washington Post reports the ex-president did not plan to evacuate.

Key Background

Hurricane Nicole arrives in Florida weeks after the state was already battered by Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in late September. The storm ranks as one of the state’s deadliest recent storms, killing more than 100 people, and caused an estimated $67 billion in damage, making it the second costliest storm next to Hurricane Katrina.