Update 9:39pm — As we head into Sunday NZT Hurricane Irma has weakened very slightly, due to interacting with Cuba’s landmass. The weakening is very small – dropping just 10km/h overall with sustained winds – but enough to drop to Category 4. 

Sustained winds are 250km/h now. Air pressure is 930hPa – up from 914hPa yesterday.

Irma is currently skirting northern Cuba with the eye making landfall as a Category 5 Hurricane along northern Cuba Saturday afternoon NZT with sustained damaging winds of 260km/h and gusts near 300km/h. Being the middle of the night it’s unlikely we’ll know damage in Cuba until across Sunday and Monday.

Irma is expected to slam Cuba for the rest of tonight and earrly Sunday NZT to the north and in the past few hours Hurricane Irma has begun her slow turn to the north towards Florida’s Keys.

The Keys are very low lying sandy islands that are barely above sea level. US forecasters say “no where is safe” in the Keys as Irma approaches. The storm is so powerful it may entirely remove some islands where homes are. It’s happened before.

Irma will begin to severely hit Florida anytime from Sunday PM NZT, but most likely across Monday and Tuesday as it tracks up the state. 

At 3am in Florida on Saturday local time and the latest traffic map from Google shows traffic is still moderately heavy with traffic heading north of Tampa and Orlando into the state of Georgia the heaviest. Georgia is also expected to receive flooding rains from Irma, which means many of people escaping may not be escaping all the issues in the days ahead.

If Irma remains out to sea then the storm will remain strong – if the centre crosses land it will weaken, however it’s important to note much of Florida has water/marshland/Everglades and this very low lying wetland may not cause as much weakening of Irma as some might want.  

WeatherWatch.co.nz will continue to cover this historic storm across Sunday and into next week.

– Image: 24 to 36 hours from now, Forecast Wind Map by CNN

– WeatherWatch.co.nz