'We Are in New Territory' as Michael Makes Landfall

"We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle." Hurricane Michael is making landfall just within that speed range—the upper end of it. The Orlando Sentinel reports the storm officially made landfall Wednesday afternoon near the tourist town of Mexico Beach, with 155mph winds that put it just below Category 5 status. The AP calls it "one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US mainland," and CSU meteorologist Philip Klotzbach gets much more specific. His findings, and more on the storm:

• Klotzbach tweets Michael is the 4th strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the continental US as ranked by maximum sustained wind speed, behind the Labor Day storm of 1935, Camille (1969), and Andrew (1992).
• As for the strongest ranked by minimum sea level pressure at landfall, Michael is No. 3, behind Labor Day and Camille and just above Katrina, he tweets.

• As for where it's headed, the National Hurricane Center, which calls Michael "an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane," had this to say: "On the forecast track, the core of Michael will move inland across the Florida Panhandle this afternoon, and across southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia tonight."
• Officials urged more than 375,000 people along the Gulf Coast to flee the area. This morning, Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, "The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone. ... If you chose to stay in an evacuation zone, you must SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY."
• CNN quotes President Trump as saying "we're well prepared" for the storm, with food, first responders, and trucks on standby. Still, "I just say, 'God bless everyone,' cause it's going to be a very rough one."
• An emergency management coordinator in Franklin County said they've advised "those who stayed to have their life jackets on when the storm comes."
• Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center tweeted this late Wednesday morning: "I've had to take antacids I'm so sick to my stomach today because of this impending catastrophe..."
• Time has images of what the hurricane looks like from space.

(More Hurricane Michael stories.)