Hurricane Michael: Terrifying lightning surrounds the EYEWALL - hurricane is STRENGTHENING
A DRAMATIC ring of lightning surrounding Hurricane Michael’s eye could be evidence of its strengthening, a weather expert has warned.
Creepy skull emerges on Hurricane Michael satellite
Tom Terry, chief meteorologist at Florida broadcaster WFTV showed the hurricane's eye half enclosed inside large lightning bolts as it hurtled towards the state with 140mph winds.
Mr Terry warned: “Note the lighting around the eye as well, another sign of possible strengthening.“
Atmospheric Scientist Philippe Papin also tweeted about the lightning ring and the storm's potential devastation.
He wrote: ”A nearly full ring of #lightning now helps to perfectly illustrate where the #eyewall is for #Hurricane #Michael."
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Weather forecasters say Michael’s projected landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Florida Panhandle would put the state in “unprecedented” history.
Florida Governor Rick Scott tweeted on Wednesday morning: THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE to evacuate before conditions start deteriorating within the next few hours."
Hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered or advised to leave their homes ahead of the arrival of life-threatening winds, rain and storm surge.
Where is Hurricane Michael now?
The hurricane was located about 140 miles south-southwest of Panama City, Florida, and 130 miles southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, as of 10am BST (4am CDT).
Jon Ward in Panama City said on Twitter the “outer band of Hurricane Michael coming ashore here”.
He added: “Light rain and thunder has just begun. Winds should be picking up in the next couple of hours.”
Category 4 storms on the Saffir-Simpson Scale are likely to cause "catastrophic damage".
Wind speeds at this level measure between 130mph and 156mph, causing massive structucal damage to buildings and power outages lasting weeks.
But the wind speeds are not the only thing to fear from a devastating hurricane of this size.
As a category 3 hurricane, Michael has already killed 13 people in Cuba and Mexico as a result of heavy rainfall and flooding.
Michael is now on course to produce between four and eight inches of rain the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend regions.
Up to 12 inches of rain could fall in the worst affected areas.
Terrifying storm surges of up to 13ft could also overwhelm the Florida coastline.
Florida governor Mr Scott has already warned anyone in the path of this storm surge would not be able to survive it.