National Fire News

Ian will make landfall on the South Carolina coast as a tropical storm or category one hurricane. Tropical storm to hurricane force winds are expected along the South Carolina coast and possible stretching into portions of Georgia and North Carolina, with storm surge stretching from Georgia to North Carolina, including heights potentially up to seven feet in South Carolina. There is uncertainty on how far inland Ian will maintain tropical storm strength, but near tropical storm force winds are likely near its center into upland South Carolina and possibly western/central North Carolina and eastern Georgia. Regardless, heavy rainfall is expected across the Carolinas, eastern Georgia, and southern Virginia. Lingering relative humidity of 20-35% and breezy north-northeast winds should remain over western portions of the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys through the Lower Mississippi Valley and southeast Texas into central Texas. South-southwest sustained winds of 10-20 mph gusting 20-35 mph amid minimum relative humidity of 10-20% are expected on portions of the southern and central High Plains, especially from the Texas Panhandle into southwest Kansas. Dry and breezy conditions are likely to spread farther east and north into Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska as well. Showers and thunderstorms are expected over portions of northern Idaho and western into central Montana, with isolated to scattered thunderstorms likely stretching through the Colorado Rockies into Utah and onto portions of the northern High Plains. Isolated thunderstorms are also likely in far southern Arizona.