Helene is now a hurricane on its path to Florida — the strongest to hit the US in over a year

(CNN) — Helene rapidly intensified into a hurricane Wednesday as it plows toward a Florida landfall as the strongest hurricane to hit the US in over a year.

The storm will also grow into a massive, sprawling monster as it continues to intensify, one that won’t just slam Florida, but also much of the Southeast.

Time is running out for those in the US to prepare. Thousands of Florida residents have already been forced to evacuate and nearly the entire state is under tropical alerts as the storm threatens to unleash flooding rainfall, damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge.

Helene is on track to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast — likely in the Big Bend region — late Thursday. It could be a Category 3 major hurricane when it reaches the coast, strengthened considerably by the extremely warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. Rapidly intensifying storms like Helene are becoming more frequent in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution.

The hurricane will be the fourth to make landfall in the US this year and the fifth storm to slam storm-weary Florida since 2022.

“If you’re a godly person, pray, because I don’t really need this,” Port Richey resident Rick Way told CNN affiliate WFTS of the potential flooding Helene could bring. “Neither do any of us.”

But this storm will be different than Hurricane Idalia and other recent storms to strike the state.

Helene is forecast to grow into one of the largest storms in the Gulf of Mexico over the last century, according to hurricane expert Michael Lowry. That means more storm surge and more widespread impacts, even with the center of the storm well away from the coast.

The sheriff in Taylor County on Florida’s Big Bend echoed that sentiment: “This system will be unlike anything we have experienced to date,” the office said.

The storm’s sprawl will bring rain and tropical-storm force wind gusts to parts of the Florida Keys as soon as Wednesday afternoon and spread north and east across the state from there, reaching the Tampa area by Wednesday night.

Tropical rainfall and strong gusts could spread over a large portion of the Peninsula by Thursday morning. Hurricane-force wind gusts will follow closely behind for areas along the coast, including in the Tampa area by Thursday night.

The storm’s size will also increase the risk of life-threatening storm surge as it nears landfall Thursday evening. Multiple feet of surge flooding are possible for nearly all of Florida’s Gulf Coast, a threat that has forced mandatory evacuations in at least 15 coastal Florida counties.

The Big Bend area faces the most serious storm surge: up to 15 feet of it is possible. Up to 8 feet of surge could inundate Tampa, and threaten high water records in the area, while much of South Florida could get up to 5 feet.

And the storm won’t stop at Florida’s coast.

Helene is huge and threatens the Southeast

Coastal areas typically bear the brunt of a hurricane, but that might not be the case with Helene.

Tropical alerts span hundreds of miles from South Florida to central Georgia and southern South Carolina because of its size.

Hurricanes typically lose strength quickly once they move over land, where they lose the warm water that feeds them, but Helene will remain more intact well inland because it will be both strong at landfall and moving quickly.

As a result, the storm is forecast to still be a hurricane in Georgia Friday morning, nearly 150 miles from where it makes landfall.

The storm’s damaging winds will spread outward hundreds of miles from its center and increase the risk of power outages and flooding, torrential rain well inland starting late Wednesday even before the hurricane’s center comes ashore.

By Thursday evening, tropical storm-force winds will spread over more of the Southeast and, along with soaking rainfall, could bring down trees and trigger widespread power outages. Atlanta could have wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph during the day Thursday that strengthen to 50 to 60 mph overnight.

Helene could produce historic flooding in mountainous areas of the Southeast far removed from the coast. Flooding caused by rainfall has become the deadliest threat of tropical systems in the last decade.

The storm will combine with heavy rain ahead of it Wednesday to raise concerns of “widespread impactful flooding” including “potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding,” the Weather Prediction Center warned Wednesday.

A level 3 of 4 risk of flooding rainfall is in place Thursday for portions of Florida and Georgia – including Atlanta – Alabama and the Carolinas. A rare level 4 of 4 high risk encompasses a smaller area from northeastern Georgia to the far western Carolinas, where more than a foot of rain could fall through Friday.

The potential for “major to catastrophic flooding” is becoming more likely where the heaviest rain falls, the National Weather Service in Greenville, South Carolina, warned Wednesday.

Helene could also produce multiple tornadoes in the Southeast. A level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms is in place for parts of southern Georgia and South Carolina Thursday, mainly due to the potential for tornadoes.

But the threat isn’t limited to just that area – Helene could produce a tornado anywhere from Florida through much of the Carolinas Thursday.