LONDON – The entire state of Florida has an emergency as forecasters predict tropical storm ‘Ian’ will turn into a hurricane.

What We Know So Far

As it stands there have been no comments made by any carriers as to the extent of the disruption this forecast weather will produce. We can expect to see the possibility of carriers such as Delta and American airlines once again pulling their planes out of their Florida hubs should the conditions continue to deteriorate.

Looking at the timeline of how this storm is tracking we can see that it currently is not forecast to hit Tampa until Wednesday evening, which is expected to be the worst of the strong with winds in the region of 120 MPH.

Below we can see data taken from The Weather Channel which shows the most likely forecast route and strength of the storm over the coming week.

Flights Affected Globally

Looking at her images below we can see that this forecast will affect flights globally, with some carriers such as Virgin Atlantic needing to potentially take large deviations to fly to Cancun, with other international carriers also being expected to cancel service to places such as Havana in the coming days as the storm moves further north.

While the worst of the either will likely strike western Florida, the track of the storm is taking it right in the line of the jetstream, which could pull strong winds and heavy rains up to places such as New York, which will in no doubt cause disruption, however, this is just speculation as it is still not yet confirmed the final route that the storm will take or how strong it will become.

We reached out to British Airways for a comment on the conditions as to how this would affect their planned services to Miami, we have at the time of writing this article yet to receive a response.

Update 28/09 – 04:00 am UTC

Tampa Airport confirms it will be closing and ceasing all operations at 5 pm Local Time today. The airport said it needs time to prepare the terminals, jetways and ground equipment for it all to be secured and stored away.

Miami International Airport says “It is not in the cone of concern” and will therefore remain open, however, disruption is likely due to the high winds and intense rainfall which will likely hinder some airport services as weather reports show intense thunderstorms on the outer rims of Hurrican Ian.

Update 28/09 05:00 am UTC

Delta, American, Southwest and four other carriers have all confirmed that they are adding additional services into surrounding airports of areas due to be hit by Hurricane Ian and are waiving checked bag fees for up to two checked bags per person, as they try to offer mandated evacuation options to locals.

This is a developing story.