Position and intensity
As of the 8:00PM EDT intermediate advisory category 2 hurricane Matthew was located northeast of Florida, at 30.7 degrees north and 80.6 degrees west. Maximum sustained winds were 110 miles per-hour, the minimum central pressure was 948 millibars, and movement was to the north at 12 miles per-hour.
U.S. watches and warnings
- A hurricane warning is in effect from the Flagler and Volusia county line in Florida to Surf City, NC.
- A tropical storm warning is in effect from Surf City, NC to Duck, NC and for Pamlico Sound and Albemarle Sound.
- A hurricane watch is in effect from Surf City, NC to Cape Lookout, NC
We expect the hurricane warning still in effect along Florida’s East Coast to be canceled  later tonight.
Track forecast for Matthew through Wednesday
Matthew is expected to turn to the northeast tonight, to the east tomorrow, and to the south on Sunday. Matthew will then continue to track south through mid-week next week, likely looping back towards Florida and the Bahamas.
#Matthew has weakened to a cat 2 hurricane. Now moving N away from FL.
5PM EDT update.
Winds: 110mph
Pressure: 948mb
Movement: N @ 12mph pic.twitter.com/Baol57o9rJ— Gulf Coast Storm Center (@GCSCWX) October 7, 2016
At this time, it’s too early to know if Matthew will impact Florida again next week when[if] it loops back south. Both the GFS and ECMWF  forecast Matthew to impact Florida again mid-week next week; but as we said, it’s too early to know.
Intensity forecast through Wednesday
Matthew weakened to a category 2 hurricane this afternoon and will continue to weaken through this weekend into next week, weakening to a category 1 tomorrow, a tropical storm on Sunday, and a tropical depression sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.
Timing and impacts
Matthew is now located northeast of Florida; therefore, no further impacts [aside from gusty winds from the north and rough surf ] are expected along Florida’s East Coast.
This will be our final website update on Matthew unless until Sunday – if it still looks like Matthew will could possibly impact Florida again next week.
We will still be tweeting frequent updates on Matthew throughout the weekend though.
