>> hurricane idalia are now a category 3 storm. landfall is just hours away and we're moments away from the 4 a.m. update. potential looking at category 4 storm. >> floridians are bracing for potentially catastrophic impacts, life-threatening surge. five million are in the forecast cone, millions facing dangerous threats from the storm. >> that is live picture of cedar

key from florida. we got the updates, welcome to fox weather. the reason we're here is because this is a dangerous storm. still intensifying on way to becoming a category 4 storm hours out from landfall on florida nature coast. you saw the stinger and jane, we got new information, on the door sdlt step of category 4 storm. >> winds up to 120 miles per hour. hurricane hunters getting back data has been critical in looking at the last couple hours. we were anticipating directional shift north, northeast andic approximating up speed 17 miles per hour. this forward jolt to the northeast is expected to happen

before landfall. pressure down to 941 millibars, max winds 125 any upgrade and we are talking about a category 4 hurricane idalia. there is the change in the past hour, pressure dropped three millibars, measured by hurricane hunters, national guard and noaa, over the last 24 hours. wind is up five miles per hour, pressure is down and forward motion north, northeast 17 miles per hour, that will bring hurricane conditions inland and quickly once we get a landfall. it will come downhill quickly to the coast. head out to brita merwin from gainesville, florida.

what are conditions like overnight and dealing with outer rain bands? >> my night different, i slept between 7:30 and 2:00. overnight was pretty quiets, around 3:00 in the morning, it already past us, it is raining, the band that came through had a punch, stronger winds over 30 miles per hour and we'll be riding out the rains bands. i'm close to the university. university of florida is 60's,000 kids. think about the locations. i met a couple exchange students from australia, i reminded them, this is like a cyclone in your

country and that gave them a little peace of mind. it is definitely going to be an interesting morning getting closer to landfall and we get inner bands closer to gainesville. this is definitely the beginning of what will be pretty impressive day. the latest advisory, interesting to see that jump to category 4, we are anticipating that. >> yeah, britta, we have talked about what we're expecting at the coastline, it is extreme. up to 16 feet of surge. where you are and many locations inland to georgia, georgia hsz hurricane warning and it will bring hurricane conditions inland. >> yeah, the fact it will be a hurricane when it crosses the florida/georgia line is notable. it is rare for gainesville to be

impacted by weather systems worse than tropical storm strength. they had an drea in 2013. it's been a hot minute, 10 years since they had bona fide storm know cans move over gainesville. this is such a powerful storm and that forward motion, it will hold on to hurricane status and have stronger winds for a longer time. look back to other storms, where we have had hurricane warnings places like shreveport, louisiana, tracking systems piling into the gulf coast of louisiana temperature is impressive when you see hurricane warnings extendin in the land, gainesville and tallahassee and we'll check in with are brandi campbell later temperature is dark, the trees

here are small cookies, in the distance, i have massive trees with spanish moss hanging from them. talking about 30 foot trees. look at tropical storms that have impacted gainesville, it is tree damage. for a lot of inland locations, power outages will be substantial in some areas. it was interesting, talking to people getting dinner and supplies last night, they feel they are going to have power stay on in gainesville and i mean, considering the winds at landfall, probably worst of the weather for gainesville will be 7:00 a.m. to lunchtime. i find it hard to believe we'll have power on in gainesville in many locations, i'm set up close to the university, the biggest employer is u.s. health, with

huge hospitals, you have a good setup as far as generation. there will be power outages. >> interesting how the morning unfolds, the tornado threats, still under tornado watch until 6:00 a.m. eastern time, we have a warning on the board for orange county and osceola. >> we have only gotten a taste of the rain band. threat for tornados will go up. we'll check back in a couple of minutes, we have full coverage on the ground. >> mattin ifn joins us from upon st. pete beach. what is your experience like over the last couple of hours? >> you know, the weather has been dramatically fluctuating.

intense wind and rain and heavy downfall a couple minutes ago. we were drenched and now we have dry air and direction of the wind has been shifting and most notable is the water behind me. the gulf consumed this beach and made way into the dunes where i'm standing and receded dramatically and noticeably in the last couple minutes. waters, wind and rain is fluctuating by the moment. we have seen reports by officials, i believe the sheriff's office says there is flooding in st. pete beach. i believe i can see some much the water from the gulf making its way over into some of the residential and commercial areas on the main streets. as the sun comes up, we'll be

able to give better picture or understanding of the potential flooding in st. pete beach. this is zone a of evacuation, mandatory evacuation area because it is prone to flooding. >> early afternoon hours onshore flow. see what kind of shape the beaches are in, we are a few days out from the holiday weekend. that is matt finn. we're coming up, going to check in from fox weather a nicole valdes in the hillsboro side of tampa bay. that is cedar key, the exclusive storm tracker mark suduth. you have wind around 45 mile per hour. this pressure has been dropping every time we've checked on this. that is a live picture from cedar key right now also, inland

threatses, jane, tornado warning until 4:30 for orange county and osceola. metro area. >> we will watch this close, we have outer bands and this tornado threat expected to increase. inside the warning, warning box continues to northeast. this area of rotation southeast of orlando. orlando between orlando and east coast, a lot of population here and you see circulation in the notch there with the green and red coming together. that is circulation inside this band that is potentially producing a tornado. now with storms like this, sometimes they are hard to spot and they are brief and quick can continue to wrap up fast.

this is timeline of the tornado threat. get to the lowest area of your home and keep as many walls between you. >> a lot of rotation in outer bands of landfall and tropical system especially when major, that is approaching the highway, takes from orlando to the space coast. we'll be watching for signs of rotation persisting, this one of many hazards presented by major hurricane idalia on way to becoming category 4 storm before making landfall. expecting landfall to be four to five hours out. keep it here on fox news and fox weather as we track the latest up to landfall and beyond. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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>> welcome back to fox news and fok weather, continuing coverage of major hurricane idalia. send it back to tampa to fox weather correspondent nicole valdes. this is cedar key, area we are concerned with. what is latest from bayshore? we saw the water raise quickly and crash over the railing there. has it gotten any worse? >> it has, we're talking about rain back in the game here as we continue to feel incredibly strong wind gusts pushing against us. we are in front of bayshore boulevard temperature is pushing water further into the road temperature is dangerously close if not coming over the median that separates bayshore boulevard. this is becoming more intense situation and this water is rising so incredibly quickly.

almost scary quickly. i will point out, you are watching the bay, the breaking waves coming over and onto the road, creating like a crashing effect like you see at a beach on a windy day. this road has become that. we surpassed three feet of storm surge along bayshore boulevard. i just spoke to a couple police officers, they are driving around trying to figure out how bad it is. they said there are certain intersections with the roads are under water. this is something they are very surprised of and it is because we recognize bayshore boulevard does tend to flood. this is not just flooding this is storm surge and we could well see that forecast, 4 to 6 feet

of storm surge come to fruition. inching close to four now, talking about high tide expected around 11 a.m. and you guys said, we look at another foot of water at high tide, not to mention what we're seeing at this time. add another foot, good chance the water will go into the road and it is why businesses alongside bayshore and businesses have boarded up. it is not hard to believe this water could get further inland. we are watching this hurricane make landfall north of here, maybe to tallahassee. we are seeing severe storm surge impact which have been the number one concern all throughout the tampa bay area, including clearwater and st.

pete beach. we are seeing similar dangerous situations. you are talking about three feets, i take a step into higher ground, which is good, we need to make sure not to step into the road, we are not sure how deep that water is and strength of the waves is evident. a couple inches of water can move a car, we are looking at three feet of this road alone, it goes for miles in either direction. police officers are driving up and down and there are people trying to move in this. it is so incredibly dangerous when talking about water rising and moving at a scary fast rate. >> you mentioned you spoke with law enforcement officers, i know they have seen bayshore flood a dozen times, but breaking waves on bayshore is different set of

circumstances. what did they say about what they are seeing, i imagine a contrast going back to ian last year and irma, when water emptied out of the bay. >> nicole: i asked them, they have been here throughout several storms and it was shock on their face. they took out their phones and were taking photos and videos of this, they cannot believe it is to this point and we are early on. not even talking about a storm that made landfall yet tomp see shock and them to tell me several roads are under water as we speak, it is clear even they were stunned by how quickly this happened. for us here, as well, seen several, i was here during ian

and saw reverse storm surge happen. really it is how quickly this happened. this water came over the road, over the last three or four hours, this was not a story and scene we saw earlier in the night tuesday night. this happened quickly and started when wind became stronger and was less about rainfall and more about strong wind gust going to push the water aaccumulating in the bay on to the shore temperature is not just bayshore, tampa general hospital and all the islands, howard franklin bridge and sunshine skyway bridge, the two major bridges in tampa and st. petersburg and bridgewater, that bridge is closed by florida

highway patrol. wind gusts are so strong, it is unsafe to drive over the bridges. if that is not indication of how seriously they are taking this and how strong the wind is becoming, not sure what is. >> nicole, we were looking, three feet of water there. next tide cycle is mid-tide, not much low tide between now and that next high tide circle close to lunchtime, which we were expecting to be foot and a half higher than this. if onshore flow keeps water in the bay, there is potential the water could rise, we are 3.2, maybe up to 4 or 5 foot storm surge range. we will watch closely over next several hours. nicole valdes, thank you. striking to see the waves crashing overshore. the latest storm surge numbers,

3.2 feet, that has gone down just a touch. severe component of the storms, after quiet overnights, we have active tornado warnings tracking a tornado watch that continues for florida until 6:00 a.m. a number of counties across northern tier of the peninsula. within the same rain band wrapping up across the peninsula, new one to south in a bit more rural area, south of k kissemee. twisting component south of sofolu springs, getting notching. that is measurement of wind, indication we have a spin inside that line of storms.

>> that is hardy county, rotation south and east of wawhich youla, to polk county. this happens quickly, same band as tornado warning to the north. subsequent bands come onshore thchl is major hurricane idalia on fox news and fox weather, keep it here as we move closer to landfall, just a few hours out at this point.

>> hurricane idalia now category 3 storm, very close to becoming a category 4. that is where it is expected to be at landfall, just hours away. >> we've got active tornado

warnings to track across the peninsulaof florida, toward orlando, five million in the forecast zone. dangerous threats in the hours to come. >> welcome back to fox news and fox weather, special welcome to folks watching on fox news, we are fox weather and we are here tracking a dangerous storm about to make unprecedented landfall as a 4. nature coast region of florida, cedar key, the water has risen another foot in the last hour. we've been watching that cadillac, which will not make it through idalia. >> poorly placed. mandatory evacuations for cedar key. we've been watching everything unfold the last couple hours and the eye is intensifying off to

the northeast, potentially a wobble again. britta merwin is in gainesville. we opened up the day and rain bands shift in and threat of severe weather could make way further inland. >> when you consider landfall site and the fact of the topography for making landfall, the reason for people to leave because it is so low lying, we could have more people in the impact zone dealing with conditions that are not going to be the top surge, but conditions of extreme wind, tornado risk, inland flooding. population is more inland that have greater number of people being impacted. i'm in gainesville, close to the

university. the university has 60's,000 people. they are the top employer, them and u.s. health. i showed up last night and people were grabbing food. folks are wary of the wind, it is rare impacted by more than tropical storm strength wind. we know the eye will get closer than they have had in the past. i don't think we will see hurricane force winds in gainesville. right now, not too bad. take you on a little walk. the trees are moving, we have a breeze. rain band moved through 3:00 in the morning and that was good. we definitely had winds over 30 miles per hour, rain coming in sideways and nice breaks in

between the bands that are easier to take on. we've seen a little taste of what is to come. as you get out of the outer rain band and work into the interior ones, it starts to get ggnarly, closer to idalia, stronger thunderstorms, higher potential for tornado, stronger winds and we have not seen too many tornado warnings overnight. you have been on throughout the overnight hours and have the exact count, that will change as we get interior bands of hurricane idalia. between now and 6:00 in the morning, expecting it to stay like this. gusts of wind will come up, the rain component.

we get closer to sunrise and landfall, it will start to get more tricky here in gainesville. gainesville itself has big trees. the trees behind me are small cookies. in the distance, we have 30 foot trees laced with spanish moss, they are known for billowing oak trees with spanish moss hanging off them. tree damage and power outages will be the problem for whyland locations. charging everything, having battery packs ready to go. for their benefit, it will be a quick hit. that forward motion is on the side of people that are inland, with a quicker hit, we will have lower impact when it comes to flooding rain. we have to look out, that is for sure, getting it in and out is better than having something

taking time to get through. to your point about the tornado warning, seeing more active radar with three active warnings with the bands onshore and with the forward speed of this storm, i think the rain bands will wrap up up across northeastern florida, georgia and carolinas and severe weather threat continuing to push northeast, where we're monitoring landfall. >> and jane, that is important to point out. think about the best analogy is an ice skater, they pull their arm and tighten their spin, that is what this storm will be doing. forward motion increases and bands tighten up and you get more intense winds in the tropical bands. having forward motion pick up, it will be forward hit and it will impact inland areas,

because winds will be strong. >> great point, too, frictional effects important to point out, multiple bands, one band has two warnings and most recent tornado warning issued, a lot of spin in all the powerful bands which adds to the one-two punch of this. fast-forward motion, it is good, it gets the worst in and out, but for folks in southern georgia, fast-forward motion keeps this as a category 1 hurricane crossing the florida/georgia line. >> those are areas not used to hurricane force wind, their taste are wind is from tornado, not from hurricanes. look at stats for gainesville,

specifically, one of the worst storms to hit was storm of the century in 1993, that year might pop out in your mind, you two are from the northeast, that was an impact for gainesville, turned into the blizzard of '93 for northeast and nonnamed hurr hurricane, it wasn't a tropical setup, it interacted with the cold fronts and produced those conditions. tree damage in gainesville in 1993 was extensive, it came in with a lot of ve rosity, their benchmark is nontropical will storms. might get a punch from the storm, it is interesting to have that component to talk about and

think about. >> you talk be about tree damage likely to come as hurricane-force weekends make their way further inland. we have not seen a lot of power outages yet, that has allowed people a buffer to charge their phones up, be ready for the day ahead. once that storm makes landfall and winds have the impact, we will see power get cut and things will continue to unfold and we need to get warnings out. it is easier to have power outages during the day in terms of comfort creature level. there are bigger problems when you consider the storm surge issue we'll have in cedar key. power loss seems like a small thing to be talking about in comparison to over 10 to 15 feet of water inundating an entire island. it has impact and losing power

during the day is easier to get through. this is a fast hit, you can't get power crews up until winds calm down. that will shorten the time of power loss, which is helpful for inland locations. driving from tampa, i put the video at britta merwin wx, for twitter and instagram, we saw four convoys of power trucks driving south on i-75. it is about two-hour drive between tampa and gainesville i took yesterday afternoon and all you saw were power crews heading south and it was interesting, power crews were heading south, national guard was heading north to gainesville. they are prepositioning people all over florida, not just gainesville and tampa.

the crowd driving on i-75 was not the normal crowd and the weather was calm at that point, it was yesterday afternoon and we were not even seeing rain yet in north florida. the feel was different, not the normal crowd, it was people being prepositioned because of the hurricane. it is eerie driving along the highway, i experienced it when sandy came in, you have utility companies coming from virginia prepositioning themselves to upon had out as the storm came to florida. you are in gainesville all morning long, we'll check back in a couple minutes. take a closer dive into idalia now on radar where we can pick out a couple key features that show the storm. if the normal crowd driving on

i-75, they would be driving 400 miles per hour, there is a lot of strategy that goes into prepositioning state resources. florida has a lot of experience in this, not necessarily this part of florida, from nature coast up through big bend back to 1851, there has not been a category 4 plus that made landfall thchl is marshy, not like the beaches. it is marshy and a lot of pine trees through here, especially getting away from the coasts, which are susceptible to snapping off with wind of this magnitude thchl is going to lead to power outages. we've been watching this closely, watch this wobble to the east. this line over the last hour,

with burst of convection, this tugged the whole thing further north. >> it did, i wouldn't be surprised if we see this over next two to three hours, this convection. closer it tracks to land, closer we can look at it. this is coming out of tallahassee. stay with us on fox weather, major hurricane idalia within hour approach of making landfall. keep it here on fox weather. let innovation refunds help with your erc tax refund so you can improve your business however you see fit. rosie used part of her refund to build an outdoor patio. clink! dr. marshall used part of his refund to give his practice a facelift. emily used part of her refund to buy... i run a wax museum. let innovation refunds help you get started on your erc tax refund.

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>> welcome back. hurricane idalia a category 3 storm, high end category 3. just hours away from making landfall as major hurricane. >> floridians bracing for potentially catastrophic impact as hurricane idalia locks in on land. 5 million in the forecast cone

and millions facing dangerous threats from the storm. >> that is live picture from cedar key on the advancing side of this powerful storm. we have watched the water there come up about a foot in the last hour. we've been checking on the cadillac that will be lost, jane. welcome to fox weather and special welcome to folks watching on fox news through overnight. we are fox weather, there is an awful storm in northeastern gulf of mexico, unprecedented one about to make landfall potentially as category 4. big behind and nature coast of florida, no storm of record made landfall going back to 1850. watch us on fox weather and every streaming channel there is, check on fire tv, youtube,

roku, we will be with you throughout the storm as we track idalia in the coming hourings this morning as the sun comes up. we have a full team. ian and i are here overnight, we have bob in clearwater florida and we'll check in throughout the morning. we have nicole valdes in tampa and with us is britta merwin in gainesville. britta. >> good morning. just analyzing radar on the fox weather app. the eye itself is a big deal for inland locations, the eye will not move over gainesville. i have my eye set on lake city, florida between gainesville and tallahassee. you have a couple intersecting highways there, 10 and 75 with this shift of the storm, movement to north and northeast.

look at ian areas that will get a taste of the highest winds. tropical systems are stronger than tropical storms, last one they had was andrea and peak wind was 45 to 50, gainesville probably had wind gusts stronger than that. it is interesting because a lot of inland location, talk about benchmark of storms, many inland locations are nontropical storms. idalia may change that from north florida to georgia. it will be a hurricane when it crosses the florida/georgia line. that is a big deal to see it extend further inland is game-changer and more areas will get a taste of strong wind.

extent of having the wind toward the center is trend to watch, too. as you know, that forward motion starts to pick up, the wind can expand. we want as few folks as possible affected by hurricane force wind. sustained tropical storm wind will take out power, especially areas like gainesville, tallahassee, known for awesome, gorgeous trees, part of being in the south and why you love living here because of how beautiful it is with the large trees. they will come down. we've had a good swath of rain over the last four to five months, the trees are in saturated soil and you throw in the fact we have a hurricane blowing through, i think power outages upon be a big deal.

>> britta, you mention big impacts, we have brandi campbell in tallahassee, we'll check in with her. all operations for the state, we have the governor and his office working with different agencies to make sure florida has what it needs to take on the storm in the coming hours. >> that is right, they are working around the clock as landfall comes, some of them may have gone home overnight because it is not too hectic, we are having a steady rain. they may have been coming to the eoc in the early morning hours today. right now doing well. we do not have high wind where i'm standing close to downtown, as of yet. it has been steadily raining and i can see the storm is getting pretty close to us and it says

we will have consistent rain. i spoke to the mayor yesterday, he is expecting this to be an epic storm for this area. what britta was mentioning, this area has large amount of tree cover, 55% tree cover, they consider themselves a tree city usa because of it, they have diverse amount of trees. they are expecting high wind to impact tree coverage, knocking them down causing a lot of power outages in this area. the mayor told me they have already called in addition help to help restore that power. it is early, 4 a.m. eastern time. i am seeing cars drive past on the main roads in the distance, it is quiet sor far.

airport is shut down, city services shut down, the bus, hope a lot of people will not be out when we feel wind speed out here. they are not expecting a lot of flooding, wind, trees coming down issue not a good combination. >> fox weather brandi campbell, command post for a lot of emergency operations, we'll check back in a couple minutes. ian, we want to dissect what is happening, the new update at 5:00 is big from nhc, we could see intensification at the top of the hour. we'll get a new forecast path, if we will see upgrade to category 4, that is probably where we get it. we checked in with the inland

team, gainesville, tallahassee, we will get back to the coast and talk about what will be the most devastating effect of this storm, surge. reasonable worst case, jane, will happen close to and immediately right of where that powerful center that has developed over last several hours comes ashore, up to 16 feet of surge. we saw this in tampa, 3-1/2 feet of water, jane. some areas are especially susceptible to storm surge, in excess of 15 feet of surge. >> incredible to see that number and for a place why no reference for it, cannot womb pair it to what is coming to come. cedar key up to 2.3 feet. waves crash over the rails to the road, this cadillac swallowed up by water and it will be a goner by the time the

storm continues to pull into the big bend coastline and cedar key is interesting, we haven't seen impact of full force of wind onshore pushing to cedar key yet. >> the wind direction is mostly parallel to the coast line, have not had that true push of water perpendicular to the coast that will lead to the devastating surge. we've been watching the camera, the cadillac is our measuring stick and nou water up to the bumper. left side of the screen is weather instrumentation we installed and we are washing pressure drop and wind rise. this map is storm surge potential, the reason worst case scenario, you see a lot of red on the screen. that will pop up in just a moment, not everywhere will see

this reasonable worst case scenario. it is spots close to and right of the center. some areas, all red is mar issuey, north of the sun coast, north of pinellas county. south of there is world-class beaches. there are some areas like cedar key, communities along the line. prone to surge. what we're seeing in tampa is covering one side of the road or some cases, closer to the beach passes going over the road. this is the storm surge that extends for miles from the coastline. not talking one to two feet, up to nine feet or more a possibility and that is life-threatening, you cannot survive that. you hope people heeded the

warning and got out of town. nerve racking to see the cedar key camera and know there are still people hanging around town checking things out and this is not the time to be doing that. >> looking at the bars and restaurants and knowing we are not even close to the peak surge, this is high tide cycle later this afternoon. we talked about how poorly timed this storm is. never a good time to have a hurricane in the gulf of mexico, this is blue moon, super moon, these were expected to be highest high tide of the year and storm generating surge leak this, it is especially poor timing. coming down from high tide overnight, low tide expected in the coming hours, second high tide expected to be higher than overnight high tide and see

change in wind direction that allows water on the coast and that will make a place like tampa bay sit close and not be able to see water recede during low tide. >> with the storm, it shows you, mentioned folks in tampa, tampa bay why storms miss, irmaand ian went south. this storm is out of the mouth of tampa bay, four feet of surge there shows how prone that is, how vulnerable they are to surge, what was feared down the coast will occur somewhere in here across eastern parts of big bend or down the nature coast. 57 miles due west where center of circulation pin hole eye of

idalia. convection continuing to fire up on north and west side of the eye wall has been striking to me in the last 30 minutes. as that continues to strengthen and we see more convection, it will strengthen the storm and it will jog that storm further off to perhaps the west, northwest and with that jog, allows more time over the water for intensification and worst possible storm case surge up to perry across city and within that mileage zone. >> that inner core is intense, that is picking up forward speed thchl is brand new, just compiled at fox weather. top wind report so far sarasota

up to 70 and there in st. pete, up to 60. seminole and cedar gust up to 55. tropical storm wind gusts will pand. that is expected to come. for sarasota to get wind gusts, outer rain band is impressive and that continues to stretch across the peninsula. and becomes severe weather threat. >> you said pin-hole eye, that eye is 12 miles across, not a lot to that. that is the core that has winds most concerned about. that last pass by the air force reserve, the hurricane hunters had wind measured 140 mile per

hour, that inner core is intense, reasonable worst case scenario would happen close to immediately off to right of that powerful center of this system, which will be pushing that water inland. >> yeah, we're getting down into the last couple hours now. this storm has picked up speed to north, northeast at 17 miles per hour. we'll get a new advisory around 5:00, national hurricane center, being conservative unless they are super positive will likely go within that hour top of the hour time frame now gathering the data they have, making sure toic tathe time to make the right calls, as it comes in. this storm is producing outer rain band, storm surge happening in cedar key, winds are parallel

to the shore and full impact has not happened yet. >> fok weather alert system, that 5:00 a.m. update comes in, you will have the latest information. cody in weather command was letting me know that was the velocity scan looking for rotation within super cell thunderstorms, for a tornado threat cody said that was up to 8000 feet, further you get, the beam gains elevation, that is 8000 feet, 141 mile per hour. >> and where deep convection is happening inside the intensification of the storm. betting person would say category 4 is awfully close and could be happening in the next

advizry. from leafy or dixie county, this burst of convection powerful thunderstorms on northern and western flank, incredibly powerful, that burst of convection is tugging the system further off to the north. >> that subtle change will make a big difference on the coast of who sees the most catastrophic storm surge. >> this is tropical forecasting, sometimes it is just staring at it and doing now casting. it wobbles and wobbles make all the difference. that will do it for coverage on fox news. thank you for joining us, our coverage continues all day on fox weather temperature is available on favorite connected tv device temperature is on and free temperature is two screen

lifestyle we live these days, jane. sample us overthere. hurricane idalia coverage will continue on fox weather. >> expecting to see major category 3 storm intensify upon landfall. stay here on fox weather.

van /*

hurricane idalia turning off the gulf coast as powerful category 4 hurricane with 130 mile per hour winds. >> ashley: images pounding the shoreline. areas are under water up and down the coast. could see 16 feet of storm surge before this ends. >> todd: watching "fox and friends," i'm todd piro. >> ashley: i'm ashley strohmier in for carley shimkus. this is unlike any storm we have

seen before. >> todd: the message is clear, evacuate immediately. >> this is a major hurricane. there is going to be a lot of debris, particularly in the big bend area, power lines will be down and a lot of need for all hands on deck. very few people can survive the path of major storm surge and this storm will be deadly if we don't get out of harm's way and take it seriously. >> ashley: janice dean is tracking and jimmy petronis is standing by. >> todd: we begin with matt finn live in st. pete beach. what are you seeing right now? >> we have been feeling consistent winds for several hours. dramatic shifts and fluctuation in the weather all night long.