CNN —
[Breaking news update, published at 6:14 p.m. ET]
Nicole has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane and has sustained winds of 75 mph, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. The storm is located 25 miles east-northeast of Freeport, Bahamas, and 105 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Nicole continues to track west at 12 mph toward Florida’s east coast with landfall expected after midnight, according to CNN forecasters.
[Previous story, published at 5:27 p.m. ET]
Tropical Storm Nicole is battering the northwestern Bahamas on its way to eastern Florida, where it is expected to make landfall as a hurricane by early Thursday and bring heavy rain, damaging winds and possible tornadoes to some areas still recovering from Hurricane Ian.
Nicole is bringing a dangerous storm surge and strong winds to Grand Bahama Island, the US National Hurricane Center said in its 4 p.m. update. ET.
The center of Nicole, with sustained winds of 70 mph, just 4 mph short of hurricane strength, passed over Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas early Wednesday afternoon and then Grand Bahama and has more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Nicole is expected to eventually strengthen to a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday en route to Florida, where it could reach the southeast or east coast of Florida overnight, according to the hurricane center.
Forecasters added that people affected by the storm should not focus on the exact track of the storm’s center because Nicole is a major storm with “hazards extending to the north” of the forecast track.
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“Outer bands from Nicole have already begun to affect east central Florida,” the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Florida, said in a tweet at 3:30 a.m. “Conditions, especially along the coast, are dangerous. Waters will begin to rise again this afternoon as high tide arrives around 8:20 to 8:30 p.m. STAY AWAY FROM BEACHES.”
Nicole would be the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States in November in nearly 40 years. More than 5.3 million people along Florida’s east coast are under hurricane warnings and 4.1 million are under a hurricane watch.
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Tropical-storm-force winds (39 to 73 mph) were already lashing parts of the east Florida coastline Wednesday morning, the hurricane center said, as well as flooding. Ankle-deep water pooled in parts of Boynton Beach, north of Boca Raton, photos posted by police on Facebook show.
Some drivers were also wading through floodwaters on streets in West Palm Beach Wednesday morning, video from CNN affiliate WPEC showed.
After making landfall in Florida, Nicole is expected to weaken as it moves across the southeastern US on Thursday and Friday. But it still poses a threat of flooding and damage in Florida, which has been reeling since Ian slammed in September along the West Coast and then wreaked havoc across the state, killing at least 120 people in the state and flattening neighborhoods.
In addition to damaging winds, Nicole is forecast to bring:
• Heavy rainfall: From the northwestern Bahamas to eastern, central and northern Florida, about 3 to 8 inches are possible. About 2 to 6 inches are expected from parts of the southeastern U.S. to the southern and central Appalachians and western mid-Atlantic by Friday, the hurricane center said.
• Storm surge: Coastal water levels could rise up to 6 feet above normal tide in the northwestern Bahamas and up to 5 feet from North Palm Beach, Florida to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. Up to 4-foot waves are possible to the south and north of this area, including parts of the South Carolina coast.
• Tornadoes: Tornadoes are possible Wednesday night into Thursday across eastern Florida, southeastern Georgia, eastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, the hurricane center said.
Tropical-storm-force winds extended up to 485 miles from Nicole’s center, the hurricane center said. The massive wind field — wider than that of the strongest Ian on its approach to Florida — means nearly the entire state will feel winds of 39 mph or greater from Nicole.
