Hurricane Dorian has parked itself next to Grand Bahama Island, with heavy rain and damaging winds forcing those on the island to remain in shelter, Monday evening.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Dorian had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph as of 11 p.m. ET, which has fallen since making landfall in the Bahamas on Sunday evening.
According to the 11 p.m. Monday update from the National Hurricane Center, the eye of Category 4 Hurricane Dorian is creating life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic winds over Grand Bahama Island.
The hurricane is expected to drift westward or west-northwestward over the next 24 hours, which will cause a prolonged period of devastating winds and storm surge over Grand Bahama Island, according to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. The center says by late Tuesday, a weakness in a ridge becomes more pronounced and Dorian should turn northwestward near the east coast of Florida. By Tuesday, the hurricane is expected to make a northeastward turn ahead of a broad mid-latitude trough.
The hurricane center says a small change to the left of the NHC forecast could bring the core of the extremely dangerous hurricane onshore of the Florida east coast within the hurricane warning area. In addition, Dorian's wind field is predicted to expand, which would bring hurricane-force winds closer to the east coast of Florida even if the track does change.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles.
Swells will begin affect the east-facing shores of the Bahamas, the Florida east coast, and the southeastern United States coast during the next few days. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
