Photo: Hurricane Irma

Incoming Hurricane Irma is now so strong that it can be picked up as seismic activity on devices that measure the strength of earthquakes.

Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, said the seismometer recordings on Guadeloupe, an island group in the southern Caribbean Sea, show the now-Category 5 storm approaching the Lesser Antilles, another Caribbean island group. “Seismometer recordings from the past 48 hours on Guadeloupe show Cat. 5 #Hurricane #Irma driving closer toward the Lesser Antilles,” Dr. Hicks tweeted.

But he’s been tweeting about the Hurricane frequently and letting other know that it’s gaining strength. Dr. Hicks did clarify later that background noises like the wind causing trees to move and crashing ocean waves was the cause of the seismographs detection of Irma.

Seismometer on St. Maarten went offline at 10:20 UTC, just as the eye of #Hurricane #Irma was passing over the island pic.twitter.com/9DUlq0elsW

— Stephen Hicks (@seismo_steve) September 6, 2017

“The hurricane force winds in Irma are wider than Florida,” tweeted Bryan Norcross, a hurricane specialist at the Weather Channel. “You won’t need a direct hit to get Wilma-type winds & storm surge on both coasts.”

The hurricane force winds in #Irma are wider than Florida. You won’t need a direct hit to get Wilma-type winds & storm surge on both coasts. https://t.co/qz5xsVSuUT

— Bryan Norcross (@TWCBryan) September 5, 2017

Irma, which is already the strongest hurricane ever recorded outside the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, is likely to make landfall somewhere in Florida over the weekend.  Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have declared states of emergency.  Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, has said Irma’s exact path is unknown, but that the storm could affect “millions of Floridians.”

This comes as the nation, and Texans specifically, continues to recover from Hurrican Harvey’s destruction.

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