While Texas is still struggling to recover from Harvey, more trouble was brewing Friday out in the Atlantic — and its name is Irma.
Packing 115-mph winds and expected to grow stronger in the coming days, Irma was about 2,500 miles from the U.S. coast as of 5 a.m. and marching west-northwest at a steady 12 mph clip, according to the latest National Hurricane Center bulletin.
“It’s still closer to Africa than the Caribbean islands,” Dennis Feltgen, a NHC spokesman and meteorologist, told NBC News. “But it’s holding its own and we’re still predicting it will strengthen.”
Does it pose any danger to the Harvey-battered U.S.?
“We don’t know yet,” Feltgen said. “It’s just too far away.”
Still, it’s moving closer. When Irma was declared a dangerous Category 3 hurricane at 5 p.m. Thursday, it was about 3,000 miles southeast of Miami.
“Fluctuations in strength, up or down, are possible during the next few days, but Irma is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through the weekend,” the latest Hurricane Center bulletin states.
The “rapid intensification” of Irma’s strength got everybody’s attention at their headquarters in Miami, Feltgen said earlier on Thursday.
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.
