Hurricane Hermine Makes Landfall in Florida, Will Begin Journey Up Coast

This story was updated at 2 a.m. - Hurricane Hermine made landfall on Florida's Gulf coast just before 2 a.m. Friday morning, leaving tens of thousands without power for what forecasters said could be a "life-threatening" storm.

That likely won't be the scene if and when Hermine reaches New England, but it could still get messy.

On its present track, Hermine is expected to cut across northern Florida Friday before heading toward Georgia and South Carolina. The storm is anticipated to then move through parts of North Carolina early Saturday morning before continuing in a northeasterly direction that could bring it in contact with Virginia and Maryland late in the weekend.

Now, the disclaimer. The National Hurricane Center makes it clear that it's too early to tell what the specific impacts to the Northeast will be. The key will be what happens after it reaches the Carolinas this weekend.

But according to Weather.com, the hurricane could make its presence known in New England late in the weekend or early next week, when one of three things could happen. The system could:

• pull offshore and its impact could be limited to some coastal flooding/beach erosion, high surf and rip currents;
• stay close to the coast and drench us in some heavy rain and strong winds (the most likely scenario);
• or stay inland, slowing down, but with very heavy rain and flash flood possibilities.

On the plus side, the rain could help shake us out of an unprecedented drought.

The drought expanded once more this morning, with the "extreme drought" designation creeping farther into Southeastern Massachusetts, and a "severe drought" overtaking all of the Cape. That puts the lack of rainfall at historic levels.

Boston recorded 3.92 inches of rain, short of the previous record low of 3.97 inches in 1957. Those are the only two times rainfall has been recorded under 4 inches, and it's only the seventh time less than 5 inches has been recorded.

And while the heat has finally started to give a little, the average temperature in August was 76.4 degrees, nearly a full degree higher than the 75.5 degree record set in 1988. The last time that number was even threatened was in 2002, when the average temperature was 75.2 degrees. There were no 100-degree days this August, with the temps maxing out at 98 degrees in Boston.

The NWS has four weather posts in Southern New England, in Boston, Worcester, Providence and Hartford.

At the Worcester post, this August was the fifth warmest on record at 72.2 degrees. The average summer temperature was 70.1, a couple degrees higher than the average in years past.

Providence was at 76 degrees in August and 73.7 over the summer, just missing records.

Sherri Lonnon, Patch Staff, contributed to this report

Image courtesy of National Hurricane Center