How powerful will Hurricane Irma be when it nears SC?

Hurricane Irma could make landfall in southern South Carolina as a strong category 2 or 3 hurricane, according to the latest update on Thursday by state forecasters.

Late Thursday morning, the entire state of South Carolina was added to the cone of uncertainty. The state is expected to start feeling hurricane-force winds by Monday or Monday night, according to forecasters at the National Weather Service in Columbia.

The eye of Hurricane Irma is expected to make its way into South Carolina around 2 a.m., Tuesday, according to an earlier forecast cone by the National Hurricane Center. The latest cone has the storm’s eye over the Upstate by 8 a.m., Tuesday.

The storm continues to move west-northwest near 16 mph. Hurricane Irma’s winds weakened slightly to 175 mph, but those winds still make it a powerful category 5 storm.

The effects of Irma in South Carolina are expected to include periods of heavy rain that may lead to flooding, strong winds to tropical storm force or greater, and isolated tornadoes. That could lead to minor to moderate damage to buildings and more extensive damage to trees, power lines and poorly constructed mobile homes.

When, exactly, South Carolina will start feeling the effects of Irma remains unclear since there is still some uncertainty relating to when the storm will turn north. But forecasters said the storm’s effects could arrive as early as Sunday night.

“Important to remember as well that significant impacts can and will occur well away from the center of the storm and outside the cone of uncertainty,” the Columbia forecasters discussion stated. “The silver lining in all of this could be that wherever Irma tracks it should be moving at a reasonable rate of speed to limit the strongest winds and very heavy rain to a relatively short time frame.”

Unlike Hurricane Harvey or the storm that brought South Carolina the October 2015 flood, only moderate flooding is expected because the storm is not expected to stall over South Carolina.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency for South Carolina on Wednesday to allow state agencies to coordinate their efforts in preparation of Irma’s expected arrival. He stressed that for now the declaration was just a precaution.

This story was originally published September 7, 2017 at 12:11 PM with the headline "How powerful will Hurricane Irma be when it nears SC?."