Hurricane Irma surges towards the Florida Keys as it approaches the U.S. mainland.

The National Hurricane Center’s forecast path for Irma has it hitting South Florida, including Miami and perhaps its highly developed and expensive central region, then up through affluent Broward and Palm Beach counties and farther north, threatening the entire peninsula.

“I’m afraid Irma is going to track too far west and put most of south Florida right in the eyewall,” Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach said.

Such a path is unusual, as many hurricanes approach the state at an angle. The two devastating Category 5 hurricanes that hit Florida — Andrew and the 1935 Florida Keys/Labor Day hurricane — both only went through part of the state.

In this map, Andrew is the line that crosses the southern part of the state from east to west, while the Florida Keys hurricane crosses the Keys then moves north along Florida’s west coast.

“The effect of Irma on the state of Florida is going to be much greater than Andrew’s effect,” Weather Channel senior hurricane specialist Bryan Norcross told the Associated Press.

Looking at past tracks of all major hurricanes (Category 3, 4, or 5), most crossed only portions of Florida.

However, Klotzbach said, a couple took a path similar to the one Irma is forecast to take.

While Hurricane King (1950) originated much further west than Irma, it’s track once it made landfall looks similar to the track Irma may take, he said.

On Oct. 18, 1950, King made landfall in downtown Miami with peak winds of 130 mph, making it a Category 4 hurricane. The hurricane killed four people in the U.S. and caused $30 million in damage.

One big difference between King and Irma: The population of the Miami metro area in 1950 was about a half-million people, and now it’s more than 6 million.

The other similar major hurricane was the so-called “Homestead hurricane” of 1945 that affected a large portion of the state.

That hurricane hit as a Category 4, with 130 mph winds. It made landfall on Key Largo, soon passed very close to Homestead Air Reserve Base and then continued to move north across the state. Four people died from the storm.

Source:usatoday.com