Hurricane Florence is a big storm heading straight to the Carolinas. Some meteorologists are calling it "the storm of a lifetime" for part of the East Coast.

It's hard to say exactly how big Hurricane Florence is. But it looks — based on an illustration we created comparing the size of the hurricane to the borders of Kentucky and Indiana — like it would cover most of both states put together, based on a Tuesday afternoon photo by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Brian Schoettmer, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Louisville, said it's still "up in the air" how much rain our city will see after Hurricane Florence comes inland, as the direction of the storm could still change.

But right now, if Hurricane Florence continues its current direction, east of Interstate 75 could get 2 to 4 inches of rain while east of Interstate 65 will only get about an inch or two, he said.

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"It's something we're keeping an eye on," Schoettmer said.

Louisville should be relatively quiet until Sunday or Monday, when the region may see some of Hurricane Florence's remains, but it's not a guarantee that the city will be impacted significantly, Schoettmer said.

Temperatures should be in the mid 80s Thursday through Saturday and may dip down to into the low 80s Sunday. Temperatures may not reach the 80s on Monday.

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Here are some key reasons why Hurricane Florence is considered a dangerous storm:

Storm surge

When Florence makes landfall, it will bring a wall of water that could reach up to 20 feet, wrote Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters.

How serious is the storm surge? The National Hurricane Center lists any storm surge over 12 feet as “life-threatening,” the center’s director, Ken Graham, told CNN.

“Large, battering waves will ride atop this surge,” The Weather Channel reported.

The National Hurricane Center predicted storm-surge inundations up to 13 feet in some areas of Florence’s path.

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Inland rain

The rainfall predictions are staggering, potentially up to 35-40 inches in some isolated areas, the Weather Channel reported, and the dangers will intensify if the storm – as projected – stalls over the Carolinas.

After Hurricane Harvey made landfall near last year near Corpus Christi, Texas, the storm stalled over Houston, drenching the metro area with as much as 5 feet of rain.

“It will be worse than a Harvey in the sense that the terrain is not like Houston, which is flat. If you put 2, 3, 4 feet of rain over flat ground, you have a certain kind of problem,” Weather Channel expert Bryan Norcross said. “But if you put a foot or 2 – or maybe in some isolated places more – of rain over hills and mountains, you have a very different kind of problem, which is really more dangerous than the flat situation, as bad as that was.”

If Florence stalls, the Weather Channel predicted “disastrous flooding” across areas that experienced especially wet summers, according to the NOAA.

Track Hurricane Florence here.

Steve Kiggins with USA Today contributed to this report. Shannon Hall: 502-582-4087; sshall@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @sshall4. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/shannonh.