Florence turns into a hurricane while advancing towards US' southeast coast

Storm-force winds could begin buffeting the Carolina coast by Wednesday night, NHC forecasts showed

Florence, the sixth tropical storm in the Atlantic basin this year, intensified into a hurricane on Sunday and will rapidly gain force as it churns over the open ocean toward the US East Coast, with landfall likely in the Carolinas later this week, forecasters said.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kph, Florence ranked as a Category 1 hurricane and was expected to get larger as it develops by Monday into a major hurricane, defined as Category 3 or higher on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

Florence appeared headed for landfall on Thursday afternoon near the North Carolina-South Carolina border, according to maps