'Weather Channel's' Norcross: Irma was slowed, weakened by Cuba

Rick Neale
Florida Today
Bryan Norcross

Hurricane Irma's collision with the Cuban coastline slowed down the gigantic storm with "fortuitous timing" for Florida, said Bryan Norcross, senior hurricane specialist at The Weather Channel.

"The meteorological factors appeared in place for it to come ashore as a solid Category 4 hurricane. And in fact, a couple of things happened," Norcross said Monday afternoon.

"If it had just tracked a little farther to the north (of Cuba), just a little farther — I mean, unforecastable distance farther north — it would have, first, been stronger. And second, have arrived at the Florida Keys sooner," Norcross said.

"And the reason that's important is because dry air was lurking over the Gulf of Mexico. And the question was, when was that dry air going to impact the hurricane and begin to weaken it?" he asked.

"Well, it turned out that it happened before it got to the Florida Keys. The original thinking was, it would happen after it got to Southwest Florida and before it got to Tampa," he said.

This intrusion of dry air "sucked the moisture out of the back half of the storm" — and left Irma's eye looking like a crescent moon instead of a donut, Norcross described in a Monday afternoon Facebook post.

'Weather Channel' star: Hurricane Irma may be one for the history books

Funnel cloud photographed by Indialantic police chief as Hurricane Irma approached

As it turns out, the center of Hurricane Irma made landfall on the peninsula at 3:35 p.m. Sunday on Marco Island as a Category 3 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center reported.

"It was indeed a monster. It covered all the peninsula of Florida, and into part of the Panhandle. I don't believe there's a storm in the record book that had hurricane warnings from Key West to Tallahassee, and even Panama City," Norcross said.

Norcross said he was not aware of any hurricanes of similar strength on record that traveled along a path similar to Irma's.

"This is probably 6,000, 7,000 square miles that the electricity needs to be restored in? It's just daunting — not to mention just restoring it in the Keys," Norcross said.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter.