Hurricane Matthew poses an extreme threat to Florida — and could even loop back to pummel the state twice

An animation of microwave imagery shows the eye of Hurricane Matthew crossing the eastern tip of Cuba and heading toward the Bahamas. The animation covers almost 14 hours starting at 8 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2016. (Source: Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies) After getting torn up a bit as it passed over the mountains of Haiti and eastern Cuba, Hurricane Matthew reorganized today and began pummeling the Bahamas. As of 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday night, Matthew was swirling through the Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour, making it a Category 3 storm. "Matthew is likely to produce devastating impacts from storm surge, extreme winds, and heavy rains in the Bahamas," the National Hurricane Center stated in its forecast discussion this evening. As it takes dead aim on Florida, Matthew is forecast to strengthen over unusually warm waters. The storm is expected to move very close to the east coast of Florida by Thursday morning, and then cruise north, hugging the shoreline. Hurricane conditions are forecast for much of the coast, beginning late Thursday and then spreading northward on Friday.