Hermine Making Landfall Just South of Tallahassee, Florida! (credit: Tornado Quest via Radarscope)

DISCUSSION: As Hurricane Hermine begins the process of making its official landfall along the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle, very strong winds will continue battering the west-to-east coastline across this region.  That being said, despite the fact that this storm is a relatively weak hurricane, the strong onshore flow which is clearly evident based on the embedded deeper blue (pink) shading on the east(west) sides of this tropical storm's circulation provide a strong indication of tropical storm to hurricane-force winds which are almost certainly reaching the surface along and just inland from the immediate shoreline at this time.  Additionally, another point of concern is the dramatically increased threat for storm surge-based flooding and the bulk of the onshore flow maximizes as the center of Hermine moves ashore which will have the effect of pushing all of the deeper wave action near the eastern-half of the center of the storm towards to coves and bays just to the south and west of Perry, Florida (located to the east of St. Marks as seen in the image above as a point of reference).  

It is of particular important to also note that this landfall of Hurricane Hermine does bear some minor recent historic significance.  More specifically, Hurricane Hermine is the first hurricane to make a first, direct landfall in the state of Florida in 11 years!  To learn more about other high-impact weather events from across North America, be sure to click here!

Impressive view from @NWSTallahassee of #Hermine velocity data with landfall imminent. #flwx (11:25PM EDT) pic.twitter.com/UquaOCji9h

— Tornado Quest (@TornadoQuest) September 2, 2016