On Thursday, Irma became a major hurricane. Now the big question is "Where's it going?"
As a meteorologist, when a big storm like this develops, I start getting bombarded with "Where's the storm going?" and "Will it hit North Carolina?"
Irma is roughly seven to 10 days away from any possible landfall in the United States. Currently, it is way out in the Atlantic. Most meteorologists would love to be able to look at you and say "It's going to hit here, it will be this strong, and it will hit on this date," but that is just not possible with any accuracy.
Computer models do go out 10 or more days but the reliability of the models decrease the farther out in time you go. In the past few days, I have seen the GFS model show Irma off the Carolina coast. I've seen it show a landfall in North Carolina. I've seen it show a landfall in New England.
The EURO has forecast Irma moving near south Florida. The bottom line is "we just don't know" where this system might end up.
This is also a good time to remind you to be weary of stories about Irma that you see especially on social media that predict where the storm is heading a week or more into the future. Unfortunately, some of the weather models I've referred to, end up getting posted online and this can lead to undue worry and even panic, especially after seeing the disaster now unfolding after Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
So be careful as to the weather sources you follow and make sure you're getting good, accurate weather information. My promise to you, as soon as we have a good idea where Irma is heading, we will let you know!
One thing is for certain: with a dangerous storm in the Atlantic, it bares watching. As we get into the early to middle of next week, the track of Hurricane Irma will become clearer. At that point, we'll know if Irma will pay us a visit or not.
Be sure to watch Spectrum News and Weather on the Ones as we continue to monitor the tropics and Hurricane Irma.
You can also find information on Irma on my Facebook page and Twitter feed.