As of 2:30pm Sunday, Hurricane Irma is a Category 3 hurricane just miles away from moving directly over Naples and Fort Myers. Winds of the monstrous storm are blowing at 120 miles per hour. The eye of Irma is currently just over 30 miles south of Naples, about 65 miles south of Fort Myers. Shortly at 2:30pm Sunday the storm was moving north at a speed of 12 mph.
Forecasters with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network say one of the greatest challenges with the storm as it nears the coast of Southwest Florida are the winds, with hurricane-force winds extending 80 miles beyond the core of the storm, with tropical storm-force winds extending 220 miles from the storm's center.
Those dangerous winds have put the entire peninsula of Florida under hurricane warnings.
North of Southwest Florida, from Orlando and up the state, forecasters say the primary threat is from tornadoes, which could threaten areas as far was at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. Within the last hour, FPREN forecasters have seen tornado warnings near St. Augustine.
After impacting Naples and Southwest Florida, Hurricane Irma is forecast to move north into the Sarasota and Bradenton area by 2 a.m. early Monday.