by Donald Wood
Last updated: 11:30 AM ET, Thu September 1, 2016
UPDATE 4:00 PM September 1
Hermine has been officially upgraded to a Hurricane with sustained winds near 75 m.p.h.
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Labor Day travelers have been put on notice, as Tropical Storm Hermine has made the turn toward Florida and is expected to dump heavy rain, high winds, flooding and even possibly tornadoes Friday before turning up the East Coast.
According to Accuweather.com, meteorologists expect the storm to make landfall north of Tampa late Thursday night into early Friday morning, prompting Florida Governor Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency for 51 counties.
A mandatory evacuation notice is in place for Franklin County along the Florida Panhandle, and several schools have announced preemptive closures Thursday and Friday. In addition, several airlines have already announced they will waive flight change fees for areas in the path of the storm.
Major tourist destinations like Tampa and St. Petersburg are likely to be impacted by coastal flooding even if the storm makes landfall 100 miles or more to the north. Heavy winds are also a major concern throughout central and northern Florida throughout the duration of the storm.
The Weather Channel shared projected storm path renderings on Twitter:
As for the areas on alert for possible tornadoes, Tampa, Orlando, Ocala, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tallahassee and other cities have been put on notice.
After making landfall in Florida, Tropical Storm Hermine is then expected to continue northeastward across part of Georgia Friday before moving through the Carolinas Saturday.
Depending on the trajectory of the storm and weather conditions Saturday, the storm could ether track out to sea or continue up the East Coast, dumping rain and brining heavy winds to Virginia, Pennsylvania and even New England throughout the Labor Day weekend.
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