Latest models show the system making landfall near the Big Bend area of Florida sometime Thursday as a tropical storm.
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Tropical storm conditions will likely begin to arrive through the eastern half of North Carolina Friday afternoon and persist through Saturday. There’s also a likelihood for a storm surge along the coast from Apalachicola to Pasco County.
After that, the storm would head across Florida and “brush the entire Southeast coastline with rain, beach erosion and windy conditions on Friday”, according to NBC meteorologist Bill Karins. Jacksonville firefighter Omar Austin, left, and engineer Karl Lewis place another section of storm shutter over a window at Jacksonville Fire and Rescue’s Ladder Company Four in advance of Tropical Storm H. If current trends continue, this system will bring an elevated risk of rip currents in the coastal areas, three (3) feet of inundation and wind gusts of forty five to fifty five (45 – 55) miles per hour for Friday, September 2nd.
Tropical Depression Nine could soon become a tropical storm.
Tornadoes: Isolated tornadoes are possible late tonight into Thursday morning mainly across central Florida.
Heavy rain is also concerning Brown.
The National Hurricane Center is forecasting Tropical Depression 9 will strengthen to near-hurricane power by the time it reaches the Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a hurricane watch was issued for parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast because of another tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico.
The depression was placed at about 415 miles to the west and southwest of Tampa, Fla., with maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour. No warnings related to Gaston have been issued.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Tropical Depression 9 to intensify over the next day or so. Forecasters estimate the system could bring 3 to 5 inches of rain to the Treasure Coast through Friday.
We will have the potential for more heavy rainfall moving south to north throughout the night, then SSW to NNE Wednesday afternoon.
Forecasters earlier had anxious the area could get up to 5 inches of rain as the storm passed near the coast.
Byron Miller, manager of The Ocracoke Harbor Inn, said one person cancelled because of the forecast, and business is a little slower than usual. Tropical storms become hurricanes when wind speeds reach 74 miles per hour.
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In North Carolina, Jennifer Scarborough is the manager of a marina in Hatteras.
