Tropical Storm Helene's Inland Trek Producing Catastrophic Flooding, Damaging Winds

Tropical Storm Helene is tracking inland over the Southeast today with extreme flash flooding, record river flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes.

(​LIVE UPDATES: Latest Storm Reports, Impacts)

H​ere's where Helene is now: Helene made landfall at 11:10 p.m. EDT Thursday night about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, as Category 4 packing 140-mph winds.

The tropical storm is now centered 105 miles north-northeast of Atlanta, and is tracking quickly northward at 32 mph. Maximum sustained winds are 45 mph.

N​umerous flash flood warnings are ongoing, as shown by the green outlines on the radar map below. Several of the warnings this morning have been high-end flash flood emergencies in western North Carolina, including Asheville, upstate South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northern Georgia, including Atlanta. That means serious flooding impacts have occurred in those areas.

R​ecord flood crests have been observed on multiple rivers in North Carolina, including the Pigeon River in Canton, French Broad River in Fletcher and the Swannanoa River at Biltmore (near Asheville).

R​ainfall totals have topped a foot in parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina since Wednesday. The top total is nearly 30 inches near Busick, North Carolina.

H​elene's Inland Threats

F​looding

T​here have already been more than 200 reports of flooding from northern Florida into western Virginia over the past 48 hours from Helene and a separate weather system that preceded it.

The greatest flood threat Friday continues to be from northern Georgia into the the southern Appalachians. Rainfall from Helene has already triggered catastrophic flooding in this region.

That's because the heavy rain in addition to the hilly and mountainous terrain is a prime setup for destructive, life-threatening rainfall flooding and landslides. M​ajor to locally record flooding is possible on some rivers.

E​lsewhere, a broad area of the Ohio, Tennessee and mid-Mississippi valleys could see at least local flash flooding.

High Winds

Tropical storm warnings remain posted from parts of Georgia into South Carolina and western North Carolina. The National Weather Service has also posted high wind warnings and wind advisories in the Ohio, Tennessee and mid-Mississippi valleys.

Additional downed trees and power outages could impact these areas today into tonight.

E​arlier this morning, wind gusts over 90 mph were clocked in south Georgia, including near Valdosta, Alma and Douglas. A wind gust as high as 82 mph has been measured as far north as Augusta, Georgia.

M​any landfalling hurricanes also produce a tornado threat to the right, or in this case east, of where the center tracks.

The greatest chance of a few tornadoes today is in the eastern Carolinas and southern Virginia

S​torm Recap

T​he need to issue tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches for western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula prompted the NHC to begin advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine in the western Caribbean Sea on Sept. 23.

T​he following morning, Tropical Storm Helene formed as bands of rain and strong winds lashed Cancún and Cozumel. Helene also produced heavy rain and some tropical storm force gusts over parts of western Cuba.

H​elene then became a hurricane over the southern Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 25, then rapidly intensified into a Category 4 hurricane in the evening before landfall on Sept. 26.

Helene became the second major hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season Thursday afternoon. Early in the evening, a NOAA Hurricane Hunter mission found maximum winds had increased Category 4 intensity.

Helene's center moved ashore around 11:10 p.m. EDT Thursday night about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, with winds of 140 mph, Category 4 ​intensity, and a pressure of 938 millibars, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Helene is the strongest hurricane on record to landfall in Florida's Big Bend region, stronger than 2023's Idalia, which made a Category 3 landfall with 115 mph winds and a pressure of 950 millibars and an 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane's 125 mph winds.

H​elene is also the third hurricane to landfall in Florida's Big Bend region in just under 13 months. Three of the last five hurricanes to landfall in the mainland U.S. have done so in this Big Bend region.

Landfall storm reports: The eyewall, home to a hurricane's most intense winds, prompted a rare "extreme wind warning", a high-end alert only issued for Category 3 or stronger hurricane eyewalls to alert those in the path to take shelter from these damaging winds as if a tornado warning was issued.

P​eak storm surge is estimated to have reached more than 15 feet in the Florida Big Bend region based on post-storm modeling. The area will be surveyed at a later time to reveal the actual measured storm surge heights.

Over 9 feet of inundation was reported by a gauge at Cedar Key, Florida, much higher than that from Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 (6.84 feet).

S​urge flooding in parts of the Tampa Bay area topped previous modern era records from 2023's Idalia or earlier. Clearwater Beach reported about 6.7 feet of inundation (above average high tide), easily surpassing its previous record from the March 1993 Superstorm (4.02 feet).

T​he St. Petersburg gauge - about 6.31 feet of inundation - also crushed its previous modern-era record from 1985's Hurricane Elena.

Significant flooding was also reported at Ft. Myers Beach and Naples, where gauges measured 4 to 5 feet of surge inundation. According to a ham radio operator, water 5 to 6 feet above normal levels was observed in the Punta Gorda Canal Network.

Winds gusted to 98 mph at Perry, 84 mph at Cedar Key and 82 mph at St. Petersburg's Albert Whitted Airport. Gusts up to 72 mph at Miami's Opa Locka Airport, 70 mph in Sarasota and 67 mph in Orlando were also recorded.