A chart of ocean heat in the Gulf of Mexico shows why the tropical storm could ram Florida’s Big Bend region and panhandle with monstrous, life-threatning force.
An enormous tropical storm named Helene, now a Category 1 hurricane, is churning across the Caribbean near Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Forecasters predict the hurricane — which as of Wednesday morning has maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour — will rapidly intensify in the next 24 hours before ramming into western Florida late Thursday as a monstrous storm.
“There is a danger of life-threatening storm surge from Tropical Storm Helene along the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula,” the National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday morning.
The National Hurricane Center predicts storm surge as high as 15 feet in some parts of Florida’s Big Bend, a region between the panhandle and the peninsula. Caused largely by wind pushing water inland, storm surge is the most dangerous part of tropical storms; it killed more than 40 people during Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Helene could also disrupt part of the epic monarch butterfly migration, which typically passes through the Big Bend’s St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in early October.
