Florida was bracing itself on Monday for the arrival of subtropical Storm Nicole, which experts said could impact the coast, potentially affecting election day on Tuesday.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that while Nicole was still a subtropical storm, hurricane and storm surge watches were in place in parts of the state.
Nicole became the 14th storm of the hurricane season, expected to soon develop into a fully tropical storm.
“Regardless of the tropical technicalities, the system will have the characteristics of a large coastal storm rather than a tidy tropical storm as it slides slowly westward from the Bahamas to Florida next week,” wrote Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist and storm surge expert.
Nicole was expected to affect the north-western Bahamas and more than 165 miles of coastline in the south-eastern part of Florida.
If Nicole becomes a subtropical or tropical cyclone, it will be the first time in more than 70 years that such a storm has hit Florida from the east in November, Lowry said.
Though the storm was not expected to fully hit Florida until Thursday, its effects could be experienced by Tuesday evening, dampening election day with a 60% chance of serious rain and storm effects.
“Unfortunately this is going to be a very large storm, with a very large wind field on the north side,” Philippe Papin, a hurricane specialist, told the Associated Press.
“This is going to cause quite substantial surf, potentially dangerous storm surge somewhere along the Florida east coast, and heavy rainfall and probably significant winds over a large area of the eastern Florida peninsula coast.”
Nicole was set to arrive a little over a month after Hurricane Ian, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the west coast of Florida. The death toll from Ian climbed above 80 within a week.
On Sunday, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, urged residents to be vigilant ahead of the arrival of Nicole.
“I encourage all Floridians to be prepared and make a plan in the event a storm impacts Florida,” DeSantis said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the path and trajectory of [Nicole] and we remain in constant contact with all state and local government partners.”