The National Weather Service said Nicole has been downgraded to a tropical storm shortly after making landfall along Florida’s east coast as a Category 1 hurricane, pounding coastal areas with heavy rain, dangerous storm surge, and damaging waves.
With sustained winds of around 75 mph, Nicole made landfall as a hurricane on Hutchinson Island, just south of Vero Beach, along the east coast of Florida, at around 3 a.m. on Nov. 10, the agency said in an advisory.
A subsequent advisory downgraded Nicole to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, with the weather system centered over east-central Florida.
For a storm to be classified as a hurricane, it must have maximum sustained winds of at least 74 mph….