00:00It is official. The call has been made. ECS has made landfall in Destin, Florida.
00:07Yep, just got the call just now, got the update from the National Hurricane Center.
00:11It is official now. ECS has made landfall in Destin, Florida as a Category 2 hurricane.
00:18So the storm is now onshore in Destin, bringing those impacts inland.
00:23So going forward from here, I think those impacts are really going to be spreading northward.
00:27The storm may pick up in forward speed here, so we're going to be seeing those impacts transported well, well
00:33inland away from the coast.
00:35I think the worst of the weather here coming up is going to be over the next couple of hours.
00:39However, a lot of those significant impacts are going to continue through the overnight and even into tomorrow morning as
00:45we go up into northern Alabama and portions of Tennessee as well.
00:50As we follow this storm and a couple days from now we look back, what do you think we're going
00:55to remember most about this storm?
00:58I think it's going to be two things. One, how well the AI models did with this storm.
01:02I think that's going to be very memorable, right?
01:04They were further east with this. They nailed it. They did very, very well with this.
01:09And the other thing is going to be just how much shear this storm was able to overcome and how
01:15it really sustained itself pretty much all the way into the coastline.
01:18And yes, it dropped from a 3 to a 2, but again, it was still very impressive.
01:22And just how impressive is that western eyewall?
01:24We continue to get reports over hurricane strength.
01:28I think there was another report of over 100 miles an hour.
01:31They're continuing to move inland.
01:33So very, very impressive western eyewall on this storm.
01:36So far, the highest wind gusts that I've seen, I believe 102, and that was in Pensacola.
01:44Yeah, we may have just gotten one a little north of Pensacola, around 100.
01:48We'll have to check on that.
01:49But I was looking at a couple of reports in there.
01:51I think it was like 91 knots north of Pensacola.
01:54So very, very impressive storm.
01:56We'll have to take a look at some of those reports there.
01:59But it seems like those winds are being transported inland.
02:02We're starting to see some ground truth to what we've been talking about, that we expect those winds to continue
02:07to push inward.
02:09By the way, Jesse Farrell reported Panama City Beach at a storm surge up slightly now, 5.6 feet.
02:18Guess, and I haven't seen anything, what that storm surge will end up being just east of Destin, where the
02:24center of circulation came in.
02:26Yeah, and again, we still are seeing those tides come up a little bit.
02:29I think, you know, we're kind of reaching the maximum storm surge here over the next hour.
02:33But something I want people to keep in mind here, as the storm moves north, the winds are going to
02:38be flipping out of the northwest behind the storm, right?
02:41So some of the back bays and other little inlets could potentially flood as the winds flip around from another
02:49direction as the storm is moving to the north, so from the northwest.
02:52So just keep that in mind, areas that may have not flooded already could still get this water to rush
02:58in as the wind flips around from the west behind the storm.
03:02All right, Alex, great work on this storm.
03:07Your job is now over, right?
03:09All right, but you're going to be watching, and we'll talk again probably one more last time here.
03:14But it's been quite a storm, Alex, and we've still a far way to go.
03:18But now the impacts start to change as we go northward.
03:23All right, Hurricane Expo, Alex De Silva.
03:25Alex, good stuff.
03:26Again, Hurricane ECS making landfalls, a Category 2 hurricane near Destin, Florida.
03:34That call has been made.
03:37Let me go to the radar here, and again, let's zoom on in.
03:42Here is Destin, Florida, just to the east of Fort Walton Beach.
03:47There's Destin.
03:48So that means with that, the storm surge at its worst from here, from Destin, all the way down toward
03:57Panama City Beach here.
03:59So, again, this area getting the worst of the storm surge.
04:03But as Alex had talked about, you know, the storm surge significant, even pretty far east along the big bend
04:10of Florida there.
04:11You see that three to six feet.
04:13Significant.
04:14I think we're going to be seeing significant damage along the coast.
