Tracking the Tropics: Hurricane Helene becomes a Cat. 4

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Just before 6:30 p.m. Helene became a Category 4 hurricane.

Helene became a Cat. 3 hurricane over the southeast Gulf at 2:25 p.m. Thursday.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

It’s gradually picking up forward speed – as expected – to near 20 mph. It may manage to reach 25 mph – which is fast by hurricane standards.

Landfall looks to be 10 p.m. to midnight or so on the Florida Big Bend as a high-end Cat. 3 or low-end Cat. 4 hurricane.

Once over land, Helene will begin to slow its forward movement which will continue while moving inland over Georgia.

The greatest threat will transition from wind and storm surge at landfall to flooding and tornadoes inland.

Locally, the time period from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. looks to be the “roughest” when all potentially dangerous facets of Helene’s outer bands impact northeast Florida/se Georgia, including strong winds, heavy rain, and a few tornadoes.

A few heavy bands of rain and storms will move north/northwest across Jax/northeast Florida/southeast Georgia through midnight after a break until 4 to 5 p.m.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

These bands will produce brief high wind and isolated tornadoes.

Winds will steadily increase with peak winds from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. – highest from Lake City to Waycross and quite strong at the beaches too.

Flooding is not expected to be ‘great’ but there still will be some.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Total rainfall will not be much – an inch for most of Duvall, a few 2″ amounts possible, heavier in Waycross and Lake City – 2-4 inches, up to 5″.

You should be able to get around okay Friday in Jax/Duval/nearby areas but more difficult to return to ‘normal’ in Waycross and Lake City where impacts (winds and power outages especially) will be greater.

Plenty of sun on Friday. It’ll be windy in the morning, breezy in the afternoon.

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.