Hurricane Nicole hits US; feared for sprawling breadth of impact

Tropical storm Nicole made hurricane grade late Wednesday (November 9) ahead of its US landfall at 03:00 AM eastern time near Vero Beach Florida, then weakening as it made its way inland.

By 04:00 AM local time, Nicole was 25 miles (35km) NW of its landfall point and roughly 60 miles (95km) SE of Orlando, Florida, bearing maximum sustained wind speed of 70 mph (110 km/h) as it worked its way WNW at 295 degrees at 14 mph (22 km/h).

Nicole is set to proceed northwest to the Gulf of Mexico Thursday before tracing north-northeast on an inland path up the eastern seaboard Friday.

The brief run over gulf waters won't last long enough to support any viable re-intensification of the storm, forecasters claimed.

Tropical storm conditions will continue along the east coast of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina today and spread northwest to the west coast of Florida by night.

The breadth of Nicole's reach outweighs the severity of the localised wind speeds, analysts at Guy Carpenter reminded in research ahead of landfall.

"Due to the massive extent of tropical-storm force winds associated with Nicole, it is important to note that dangerous hazards will extend far outside the forecast cone (especially to the north)," analysts wrote.

Storm surge warnings coincide with high tide, extending the reach of likely coastal flooding zones from Florida to South Carolina, Guy Carpenter added.

Modelled loss estimates may prove tricky, given a lack of eastern Florida landfalls since 2005 and the lack of comparable storm breadth, analysts at BMS said in a note.

The event could, however, hit an uncomfortable point between significant and not significant enough to trigger reinsurance attachment points, BMS speculates.

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