National Hurricane forecasters aren’t taking chances with the meandering tropical depression nine, saying this morning the system could become a weak hurricane before landfall. On the forecast track, the center of the tropical cyclone will approach the northwest Florida coast in the warning area on Thursday afternoon. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Anclote River to the county line between Walton and Bay counties.
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It means tropical storm conditions are possible within 48 hours from south of Darien, Georgia, to St. Augustine, Florida. Landfall along the Florida panhandle is expected early Thursday, prompting storm watches along the coastline. The storm is expected to bring inclement weather to the area through Friday. Not likely, said Dennis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center.
Rainfall of 5 to 10 inches is possible over portions of central and northern Florida through Friday, with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches possible.
Officials issued the first hurricane watch in four years for the west coast of Florida on Wednesday, as Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened and continued its slow churn toward the state.
A news reporter doing a stand up near a sea wall in Cedar Key, Florida, is covered by an unexpected wave as Hurricane Hermine nears the Florida coast on Thursday. “They need to make those decisions based on what they see in the weather forecast”. The National Hurricane Center expected the storm to be upgraded to a Tropical Storm at some point today, dumping heavy rains on parts of western Florida and causing regionalized flooding.
The silver lining, and there is likely to be one is that once the storm is gone, the rest of the Labor Day weekend could be a thing of beauty, said Mr. Pfaff. Only a few clouds were reported and winds were only about 5 miles per hour on the Outer Banks Wednesday morning.
On North Carolina’s Hatteras Island, a slow stream of dozens of cars from places including Maryland, New York and OH headed toward a bridge to the mainland.
This setup can produce significant rainfall totals over a localized area in a relatively short period of time, resulting in localized flooding.
“We are still expecting Tropical Depression Nine to become a tropical storm, but now because of the wind shear it is facing it has not yet been upgraded”, said Meteorologist Julie Phillips, with WAVY sister station WFLA. The depression is centered about 425 miles southwest of Tampa.
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As of 11 a.m. Monday, a tropical depression was about 200 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras’ beaches and moving to the northeast.
