All eyes on Hurricane Florence's impact

Hurricane Florence is expected to make on the Carolinas on Friday morning as a potentially catastrophic category 2 or category 3 hurricane. Don’t let the downgrade of this storm fool you – this storm will pack plenty of punch. The hurricane is over 300 miles across, a storm surge of over a foot, and epic rainfall totals that could exceed two or three feet.

The conditions will worsen over the next 24 hours for South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia as the monster storm approaches. Hurricane warnings are in play along the coastline while tropical storm warnings are in place farther inland. The storm will bring winds to 100 mph, or stronger, along the coast as it makes landfall. The problem with this storm is high pressure is overhead across the eastern seaboard, and this is not steering the storm away. It will linger into the weekend and early next week. This is why the flooding could hit historic levels.

The storm will swing to the west, then eventually to the northeast by early next week. It doesn’t appear to have any influence on Wisconsin.