TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A real-time tool that helped track Hurricane Ian’s path toward Florida, and then its second landfall in the Carolinas, helped monitor Hurricane Nicole this week as it made its way toward Florida and moved across the state.
Nicole reached hurricane strength Wednesday evening and made landfall as a Category 1 storm early Thursday morning. As it moved inland across central Florida and toward the Tampa Bay area, Nicole weakened to a tropical storm again.
WFLA’s Max Defender 8 weather team has been tracking Nicole’s every move with our real-time wobble tracker.
“WFLA’s exclusive wobble tracker allows our weather team to track minute by minute wobbles, or deviations, from Nicole’s forecast track,” Chief Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli said. “This allows us to identify in real-time if the storm is starting to make a turn in a different direction and alert viewers as to how that change in motion will impact them.”
The wobble tracker will continue to monitor Nicole as it moves through the state to provide Floridians with the most up-to-date information.
“This [tracker] will be very helpful when the storm makes landfall along Florida’s east coast and when the storm moves over the Tampa Bay area Thursday morning and afternoon,” Berardelli said. “A deviation of a few miles can make a distinct difference in the impacts our viewers experience.”
Tracking Nicole
>> How will Nicole impact Tampa Bay?
>> Timeline: When to expect impacts from Nicole
