Saturday 1:25pm, Comprehensive Hurricane Irma Update

Wind gusts to 79 mph were reported at the Miami International Airport in the past hour. Here is the position of Irma at 2:08pm EDT. Power failures are being reported in a number of areas of southeast Florida and the Keys.

The weather satellite presentation of the storm seems to indicate that Irma is restrengthening. We do

not have a recent Hurricane Hunter report because they can't fly over Cuban air space (really!).

Here is the European model's depiction of winds as Irma moves north. The wind speeds are in knots.

One hundred knots = 115 mph. This will cause severe damage and a devastating storm surge.

Keep in mind that waves and tide are on top of the surge.

The forecast rainfall for the next three days. As you can see, there is a serious flooding threat.

Finally, a tornado watch continues in effect.

This was just tweeted. As a meteorologist, this is extremely disheartening. 

They are in mortal danger. 

Then, again, maybe this gives them the idea.

But, it is a small example of what the storm surge will do.