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Hurricane Irma timeline: Path and landing projections

Posted at 11:02 AM, Sep 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-07 13:48:13-04

Hurricane Irma continues to move across the Caribbean, leaving destruction in its path, and where it's headed next is a daily question for weather forecasters.

The forecast models change daily, but they're beginning to come together as to how exactly this storm will affect the United States.

At the very least, it's looking more and more like it'll at least come close to the southeast Florida coast.

THURSDAY: The Dominican Republic, southeastern Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Haiti will begin to feel the effects of this major hurricane, and those conditions will last into the early Friday morning hours.

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FRIDAY and SATURDAY: Hurricane Irma begins to slow its forward motion near the end of the week The rest of the Bahamas and Cuba are next in line for catastrophic hurricane conditions. Dangerous winds, storm surge and heavy rains can all be expected.

SUNDAY: Irma will make a right turn and head to Florida in the early morning hours of the second half of the weekend. It's currently forecast to be a Category 4 or 5 when it makes landfall or comes close to a landfall near southeast Florida.

When and where the storm makes its hard right turn is still a big question needing answered. The European model and American GFS model aren't in complete agreement, but they're coming closer together. The National Hurricane Center (image above) puts the official forecast track along the eastern coast of Florida.

While some of these potential paths are far worse than others, a lot can change over the course of a week. Forecast predictions on days four and five are off by an average of 175 and 225 miles, respectively.

Regardless of where exactly this storm travels, it's one to watch with potentially catastrophic results.

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