Hello WDWMagiceers/WDWMagicians,
I'm down here in Southwest Florida (Fort Myers to be exact) and I've been watching this thing since it went from a tropical wave off the coast of Africa to a Tropical Storm within 48 hours. When I saw this, this caught my attention and I've been obsessed with it ever since. Now that the hurricane watches and warnings have been posted for some of the Caribbean Islands, IRMA has pretty much been my life. Right now, the 5 day cone will take IRMA (based on the 5pm EDT advisory on 9/4/17) through the Florida Straits. The Florida Straits is extremely warm water (the Gulf Stream runs through here) and that's why they are forecasting this thing to stay at a Category 4 right up until the weekend. Here's the thing....the center of IRMA (where the heavy winds are) will be well south of Fort Myers, but we will experience winds of up to strong Tropical Storm force, if not marginal Category 1 hurricane winds (74-95 mph). If IRMA jogs north, it'll be a different story. If she goes south, we'll be in a better position. The wind field around IRMA is pretty massive so even with the storm forecasted to be over the Turks & Caicos islands by Friday, we'll start feeling the Tropical Storm force winds on the west coast.
Right now, we're hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney shuts down park operations this weekend. So, if anyone is planning a trip to Disney this weekend....you may want to call ahead and to make sure that everything is OK (or not).
Below is the wind field probability (Tropical Storm/Hurricane force winds).
And then there's this one... LOL!
To those of you in Florida - be safe guys! We'll come out just fine on the other side of this....#BusinessAsUsual #FloridaIsOpenForBusiness