Major Hurricane Helene becomes a powerful category four hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130mph. Helene continues to move northeast over the Gulf of Mexico at around 23mph, only 165 miles south of Florida's capital, Tallahassee.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami is calling the hurricane's storm surge "catastrophic and deadly," with forecast water levels could reach 20 feet and moving miles inland.
Over 65 counties in Florida are under a state of emergency, and several of them are under evacuation orders.
Early Thursday evening, over 366,000 power customers in Flordia and over 13,000 in Georgia were without power as tropical storm winds reached over 300 miles out from the hurricane's center. As the storm moves closer and makes landfall in the next few hours, several more customers are expected to lose power.
What does Hurricane Helene have to do with the weather in South Dakota?
After making landfall, Helene is forecast to move northward and then back to the west, stalling our weather patterns. Continued above-normal temperatures and dry conditions will stay with us through the weekend before a cold front drops temperatures back closer to normal.
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