Hurricane Ian is tracking toward the Florida coast, and all eyes are on Tampa as the storm threatens to make a historic landfall near the state’s second-biggest metropolitan area this week.
The storm has rapidly intensified into a major hurricane, and the National Hurricane Center’s predicted path is entirely focused on central Florida.
If the predictions are accurate, the storm will race toward Florida before slowing down and hovering for more than 12 hours near the coastline as the storm moves ashore Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
This is the worst-case scenario for Tampa, a city that is both highly vulnerable to storm surge and incredibly lucky to have avoided a direct hit from a hurricane for a century.
In this scenario, the storm will drive a lot of water into Tampa Bay. As of Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service has issued a storm surge warning for Tampa with depths of up to 8-10 feet predicted so far.
As the storm continues to approach the coastline, several webcams within the city show the current situation in Tampa. See the following webcams below to see for yourself what it looks like as Hurricane Ian approaches.
Live Tampa Bay views of I-275, SR60, bridges, and more
The University of Tampa’s live riverfront webcam
