While Texas is still struggling to recover from Harvey, more trouble was brewing Thursday out in the Atlantic — and her name was Irma.
Already packing 100-mph winds and strengthening rapidly, Hurricane Irma was about 3,000 miles southeast of Miami and heading west at a speed of 10 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.
“Irma is forecast to become a major hurricane by tonight and is expected to be an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next several days,” the Hurricane Center warned in a bulletin.
Dennis Feltgen, a NHC spokesman and meteorologist, told NBC News the “rapid intensification” of Irma’s strength caught everybody’s attention at their headquarters in Miami.
“The good news is we have lots of time to watch this develop,” Feltgen said. “It’s at least five or six days away from touching any land.”
And by land, Feltgen said he means the easternmost island in the Caribbean Sea.
Does Irma, the fourth hurricane of the season, pose a threat to the U.S.?
“We don’t have an answer for that yet,” Feltgen said. “It’s way too soon to say with any certainty how this will affect the United States.”
The last major storm named Irma appeared in the Atlantic on Oct. 2, 1978 and never made it to the U.S. coast.
Tropical Storm Irma came within 500 miles of the Azores before petering out on Oct. 5, according to the National Weather Service.
