As Hurricane Ian churned toward the Florida coastline ahead of its landfall on Wednesday, thousands turned to Webcams for updates.
The storm rapidly intensified into a Category 4 hurricane, and the National Hurricane Center’s predicted path was entirely focused on central Florida. The storm raced toward Florida and made landfall on the coast near the Fort Myers area Wednesday afternoon.
There were also concerns about a worst-case scenario for Tampa, a city further to the north that is both highly vulnerable to storm surge and incredibly lucky to have dodged a direct hit from a hurricane for a century. Tampa was not terribly far from the center of this Category 4 hurricane.
Hurricane Ian’s predicted slowdown as it moved onshore has links to climate change, which has contributed to an increase in hurricanes stalling, thus increasing flooding and destruction caused by the storms. Research into how Ian’s speed and impacts were affected by climate change is still need.
SEE ALSO:
The best survival kits to prepare for all the things you can’t predict
As the storm approached the coastline Wednesday, several webcams showed the situation in Tampa. Check out the following webcams below to see for yourself what the event looked like. The riverfront webcam at the University of Tampa is still live.
Tampa Bay views of I-275, SR60, bridges, and more
The University of Tampa’s live riverfront live webcam
UPDATED at Sept. 29, 11:00 a.m. ET: This article now reflects that one of the feeds is no longer live, and that landfall has already occurred.
Source: https://mashable.com/article/hurricane-ian-tampa-webcams-livestreams-florida-landfall