I’ve been following the track of Hanna all morning so far on Friday, and the storm is showing signs of strengthening although the system still looks very disorganized. On Thursday night, the convection in Hanna began to deepen with the deep oranges and reds showing up on the infrared satellite imagery. Then, during the overnight, and into this morning, the storm, which has the bulk of its most intense showers and storms on the southwestern side going into South Florida, began to show another sign of intensification as its minimum central pressure fell some 7 millibars to 980 millibars, or 28.94 inches of Hg (Mercury).

The maximum sustained winds in Hanna are still strong tropical storm force at 65 miles per hour. However, the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida indicates that it could still become a Category One Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Another factor starting to play into this storm scenario is the fact that Hanna has increased forward momentum. Although it has slowed down a tad from its 20 mile per hour pace earlier this morning, the storm is still moving quite rapidly to the Northwest at 18 miles per hour. A gradual turn to the North with even greater speed is expected during the course of the day.

Although the center of Hanna is still quite far away (115 miles East of Melbourne, Florida or about 425 miles South of Wilmington, North Carolina), its rains and winds will still have an effect well in advance of its arrival since they extend some 315 miles away from the center of this vast storm. The latest discussion from the NHC indicates that Hanna will reach up to 60 knot, or 70 mile per hour winds by the time it makes landfall in 24 hours. The storm will be well inland within 48 hours, and be extratropical by 72 hours. Storm surge levels along the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts are expected to fall between 3 to 5 feet above normal while rainfall amounts in Coastal South Carolina, Eastern North Carolina, and Southeastern Virginia are expected to range between 4 to 6 inches with isolated amounts of up to 10 inches.