Hurricane Irma swallows Florida in latest forecast from National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Irma is on course to hit Florida head-on, from tip to top, in the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center.

Still a Category 5 storm, Irma's strength has diminished over the past 24 hours. The latest advisory from NHC at 2 a.m. Eastern Friday morning said Irma is maintaining sustained maximum wind speeds of 160 miles per hour, down from its record-breaking run at 185 mph. Irma is close to losing its Category 5 status. According to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which the NHC uses, a Category 5 storm has sustained winds of 157 mph or higher.

The NHC also issued its first official hurricane warnings for Florida late Thursday -- in South Florida and the Florida Keys -- as well as storm surge warnings which come with the "danger of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the coastline." Hurricane conditions are expected in South Florida and the Keys by late Saturday, according to the latest advisory.

While forecasts from NHC earlier in the day Thursday shifted the track of the storm east, prompting emergency declarations in South Carolina, the most recent forecast cones pit the storm rolling over almost the entirety of the state of Florida, more closely matching what the European model had predicted earlier in the day.

In the meantime, as the core of the hurricane moves between the north coast of Cuba and the Bahamas during the next day or two, the agency said that Irma "is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane," though there may be some fluctuations.