How long will Irma last in Florida?

Hurricane Irma will batter Miami and the rest of south Florida through the day Sunday once it makes landfall Sunday morning—likely as a Category 4 storm, but potentially reaching Category 5, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hurricane-force winds could last for up to 12 hours in south Florida, Mike Brennan, a National Hurricane Center forecaster, told the Miami Herald. The latest forecast projects that the storm will make landfall along Florida’s southwest coast.

The gigantic hurricane is barreling towards a region of Florida that is home to nearly 7 million. Hurricane conditions will pick up in the Florida Keys and on the mainland beginning Saturday night, with tropical storm winds arriving in the morning.

The worst conditions will last through late Saturday and Sunday after it makes landfall in south Florida, and the worst conditions will last in central and north Florida from Sunday through Monday. Friday evening, Irma’s sustained wind speeds were at 155 miles per hour—slightly weaker than earlier this week.

“We still could have 100-plus mile per hour gusts over the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and even Palm Beach metro areas,” said Kevin Scharfenberg, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “We’re not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.”

The storm is expected to turn north by late Saturday and will likely start weakening fast as it begins to make landfall. Still, the size of the storm means that much of the state will be impacted by extreme winds.

All of south Florida is under a hurricane warning currently, and there are evacuation orders for areas in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Everyone in the Florida Keys is under a mandatory evacuation order.

“It’s not a question of if Florida’s going to be impacted, it’s a question of how bad Florida’s going to be impacted,” William Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a Friday news briefing.

This story was originally published September 8, 2017 at 5:58 PM with the headline "How long will Irma last in Florida?."