Starting To Worry About Irma A Little

Hurricane Irma looking ominous on satellite photos
this morning

Lots of places now need to watch out for massive Hurricane Irma. 

Forecast tracks for Irma are still not set in stone, of course, but we are starting to get some clues as to where it's headed, and the news is not great.

First in line are the northern Leeward Islands, basically the eastern entrance to the Caribbean, where hurricane watches are up.

And the National Hurricane Center has this to say:

"Interests in the remainder of the Leeward Islands, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic should monitor the progress of Irma."

While you're at it, you might start throwing in the Bahamas and Cuba for places that should watch Irma.

Irma still had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph early this morning, and the storm looked healthy on satellite images. Irma is now moving into even warmer ocean water, which could easily favor more strengthening.

A lot of forecasters are pretty confident Irma will rise up to Category 4 strength soon.

Overnight, the forecast models shifted the expected path of Irma a bit south and west in the long term, which puts the United States more at risk.

It's still possible the models could shift back away from the U.S. Any threats to the United States mainland are a week away, so huge changes in forecasts are still likely.

For now, the threat is anywhere on the East Coast, with an area from Florida to the Carolinas most at risk. Again, this is NOT definite. It's just something for people in these areas to keep an eye on for now.

Already, though, I see reports of store shelves in Florida cleared of bottled water and other supplies.

It is probably smart to get ready now, so you don't have to do a rush job amid a panic. If the storm ultimately misses, people in Florida and elsewhere will have supplies, and practice for the next time there's a hurricane threat.