Tropical Storm Irma Pushes Towards Tennessee: High Winds Main Threat

NASHVILLE, TN — Having made its way up the Florida Peninsula and now spinning in the Panhandle near the Georgia-Florida line, the former Hurricane Irma is now a tropical storm, but the massive 400-mile-storm, though centered about 40 miles southwest of Gainesville, Fla. was already bringing rain to Chattanooga, Tenn., nearly 500 miles away, by mid-morning Monday.

Atlanta, under its first tropical storm warning in history, is the next major city to feel Irma's wrath and by late Monday and into Tuesday morning, Tennessee will feel its first impact from the storm that's torn a path of devastation from Barbuda to Tampa.

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READ MORE: Hurricane Irma Live Updates: Now A Tropical Storm, Florida Panhandle And Georgia Get Hit

Unlike Hurricane Harvey, Irma will not bring torrential rainfall to Tennessee — forecasters aren't predicting more than a couple of inches — but high winds will be a worry as the earliest edges of the storm reach the Midstate by Monday night. The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for all of Middle Tennessee starting at 4 p.m. Monday and running through 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Forecasters say sustained winds of 20 to 35 mph and gusts of 40 to 50 mph are expected. The highest gusts are forecast between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Central time, with heavy winds persisting along the Interstate 65 corridor and westward through Tuesday morning. The heaviest gusts will be in the counties bound by I-65 and I-24 — including Davidson, Rutherford and Williamson — through Tuesday morning.

Winds are likely to toss around loose objects and break branches off trees. Power outages are likely.

To report an outage to the Nashville Electric Service, call 615-234-0000 or text OUT 637797. Middle Tennessee Electric customers can call 1-877-777-9111.

The eye of Irma is forecast to reach Auburn, Ala. by early Tuesday morning, push northwest through Alabama to Muscle Shoals by Tuesday afternoon and weaken further before its center reaches Jackson, Tenn. Wednesday.

Stay with Patch throughout the day for more updates.

Article image via National Weather Service