Whereas Hurricane Ian drenches Southwest Florida in large quantities of rain, the state’s northwest is anticipated to expertise drought situations and wildfire warnings have already been issued, based on a report from Newsweek.

In response to the Nationwide Interagency Hearth Heart, “Domestically crucial hearth climate situations are anticipated throughout far southwest Georgia, southern Alabama, the western Florida Panhandle, southern Mississippi, and south Louisiana,” the outlet additional reported.

Hurricane Ian, which made landfall on Florida’s southwest coast on Wednesday at 3:05 pm ET, inflicted “catastrophic” destruction and floods with its sturdy winds and downpours. Prior to creating landfall, the class 4 storm had peak wind speeds of 155 mph. Though it has already been diminished to a tropical storm, the southeast continues to be seeing its results.

In Northeast Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, lethal storm surges are predicted, and Virginia will seemingly obtain a number of rain, Newsweek mentioned.

Hurricane Ian has additionally raised extra considerations. Following one of many hottest summers on file, the counterclockwise spin of the hurricane has delivered northerly winds and low humidity to a lot of the area’s already parched woods.

In response to an announcement by Florida Forest Service, “The mixture of the sturdy floor excessive to the north and the sturdy stress gradient round Hurricane Ian will drive reasonably sturdy northerly winds throughout a lot of the Southeast.”

“With these areas remaining dry, fuels are receptive to fireplace unfold,” they additional mentioned.

In response to the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, elements of Northeast Florida, significantly near the Alabama border, are perilously near the brink for extreme drought, as per a scale used to quantify how dry the soil is.

Because of the large rains that adopted the storm, measurements from the southern a part of Florida have fallen into the bottom class of the drought index. Newsweek additional mentioned that a good portion of the peninsula was hammered with nicely over 12 inches of water in lower than 24 hours, and extra rain is predicted over the following few days.