How big was Hurricane Idalia? The storm's size at landfall

Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday with 125 mph winds. Though the storm was not a perfect circle, it spanned nearly 350 miles across, an area about the size of Colorado, which measures 380 miles across. About 30 minutes after Idalia's landfall at Keaton Beach in Florida's Big Bend coastal area, a hurricane-force wind field covered 7,850 square miles, about the size of New Jersey (7,354 square miles).

The Big Bend is a densely forested and rural area where the state's peninsula connects with its panhandle. The state's capital, Tallahassee, is about 65 miles north of where Idalia's eye made landfall.

How big was Hurricane Idalia at landfall?

By noon Wednesday, the storm's center was 25 miles north of Valdosta, Georgia, heading north-northeast at 20 mph with sustained winds reaching 85 mph.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 49 counties covering the state's northern half from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast.

Contributing: Jennifer Sangalang and Jeffrey Meesey, The Palm Beach Post