Chattanooga is in the inland crosshairs as Hurricane Helene spins north across the Gulf of Mexico as a strengthening Category 1 storm with 80 mph sustained winds approaching anticipated landfall along the Florida Panhandle around 7 p.m. Thursday.
The storm was upgraded from atropical storm to hurricane midday Wednesday and is expected to affect the Chattanooga region Thursday night and Friday, according to the National Weather Service. A rainy system over Tennessee is already causing problems.
"We have a slow-moving boundary that's migrating from west to east across Tennessee, and it's developing a lot of showers and thunderstorms, and due to that, we've got a flood watch already," Derek Eisentrout, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Morristown, Tennessee, said in a phone interview. "That flood watch will continue through midday on Friday, and we will then incorporate the second precipitation event we're having that will be the remnants of Helene."
Rain will increase and winds will intensify Thursday evening through Friday morning, Eisentrout said.
"We expect it to be a Category 3 hurricane before it makes landfall," he said. "When it makes landfall there, that's when we'll start to see the effects here.
National Weather Service / The National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center is tracking Hurricane Helene as it moves across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida at 1 p.m. Wednesday. This graphic shows an approximate representation of coastal areas under a hurricane warning in red, hurricane watch in pink, tropical storm warning in blue and tropical storm watch in yellow. The orange circle indicates the current position of the center of the tropical cyclone.
"All told, precipitation-wise from now till then, we are looking at 4 to 6 inches of precipitation across the metro Chattanooga area and Greater Hamilton County," he said of rainfall through Friday. "Even with all the rainfall we're getting, it's going to move out of the area fairly quickly."
Although drought-stricken Tennessee needs the rain, the problem is getting too much rainfall too quickly "on ground that's as hard as concrete," Eisentrout said.
"That can lead to flooding and flash flooding," he said.
Whitfield County, Georgia, schools made the early call to cancel classes for Thursday and Friday because of the incoming weather and the county commission next door in Walker County canceled its Thursday night meeting for weather, too, according to statements issued Wednesday. Georgia Northwestern Technical College in Rome, Georgia, will close at 3 p.m. Thursday and remain closed on. Friday.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency predicts Helene, whatever form it takes at landfall, will arrive in Tennessee as a tropical depression on Friday with heavy rains, flooding and gusty winds possible across the state.
The weather service forecasts winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 50 mph possible in the lower elevations of the Tennessee Valley, and 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 70 mph possible in the higher terrain of the East Tennessee mountains and Southwest Virginia.
High winds mean a greater likelihood of downed trees and power lines, and Chattanooga's EPB is preparing, according to Sophie Moore, spokesperson for the utility.
"In addition to the staging we're doing with our own crews, we are bringing in 45 additional crews and that's for utility and vegetation management," Moore said in a phone interview. "We want to be able to respond as quickly as possible should it be necessary. Obviously, we're expecting severe weather so we want to have our crews and more on hand."
Some residents in the EPB service area might benefit from the utility's smart grid technology, which provides quick power restoration, she said. Moore suggested EPB customers download the utility's phone app — MyEPB — to monitor and report outages. Residents can also contact the utility by phone, chat or through its website.
(READ MORE: Hamilton, Bledsoe, Sequatchie, Marion counties dealing with extreme drought)
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon ahead of the storm in anticipation of high winds and flooding, especially in the southern portion of the state.
South Georgia will bear the inland brunt of the storm where impacts are life-threatening, according to forecasters. Georgia residents who own horses or companion animals in the worst of the storm's path are urged to take immediate precautions or plan to evacuate with special rules allowing interstate transport of horses and companion animals to temporary safe locations or shelters, according to the state's department of agriculture.
The storm is also expected to bring heavy rain to East Alabama, where state officials are urging people to shelter livestock, according to a statement from the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries. The agency has joined with its partners to provide temporary sheltering facilities for evacuated livestock, including horses and cattle, officials said. Animals moving in response to the storm will be exempt from a certificate of veterinary inspection.
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HURRICANE CATEGORIES, WIND SPEEDS
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed, and it estimates potential property damage. Hurricanes reaching category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes because of their potential for significant loss of life and damage. Category 1 and 2 storms are still dangerous and still require preventative measures.
Category 1: 74-95 mph
Category 2: 96-110 mph
Category 3: 111-129 mph
Category 4: 130-156 mph
Category 5: 157-higher
Source: National Weather Service
DROUGHT
The Chattanooga region and most of the state are desperate for rain as East Tennessee and parts of the Cumberland Plateau remain in the grip of severe to extreme drought.
Two significant areas of extreme drought are now found in Southeast and Middle Tennessee, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor issued last week, and a tiny patch of extreme drought is found in Giles County on the Tennessee-Alabama line.
The monitor ranks "exceptional" as the most intense level of drought, followed by "extreme" and then "severe." "Moderate" is the fourth level of drought, according to the monitor.
Last month was the second-driest August since 1885. Annual rainfall totals through August for the Chattanooga region since 1885 show 2024 so far is the driest since 2016, when the total for the year at that point was 23.3 inches.
Although the incoming tropical storm will improve the state's ongoing drought, it won't catch total rainfall up for the year, Eisentrout said.
"As of midnight Tuesday, the rainfall total stood at 29.35 inches of rain for the year, while normal is 40.44," Eisentrout said. "We'll still be below normal for the year."
LANDFALL
Florida residents are being warned to prepare for a major storm to arrive Thursday evening.
(READ MORE: Forecasters call for 'heat wave of the decade' as temps 100 and above cook Chattanooga region)
"Devastating hurricane-force winds are expected across portions of northern Florida and southern Georgia where the core of Helene moves inland," the weather service states in its latest messages on Hurricane Helene. "Considerable and potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding is expected across portions of Florida, the Southeast, the southern Appalachians and the Tennessee Valley. This includes the risk of landslides across the southern Appalachians. Widespread minor to moderate river flooding is likely, and isolated major river flooding is possible."
Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Since 2000, eight major hurricanes have made landfall in Florida, according to Philip Klotzbach, a Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures. The agency forecasts 17 to 25 named storms before the season ends Nov. 30, with four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
As the U.S. readies for Helene, another disturbance is lurking in the eastern Atlantic west of the Cabo Verde Islands with a 60% chance of forming a cyclone as it makes its way west, weather service maps show.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.
