The heaviest storms could bring damaging wind gusts, power outages and rough seas, as well as the potential for a couple of tornadoes and waterspouts.
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The depression is likely to strengthen into a Tropical Storm later today (maybe as early as the 2 p.m. update).
The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma, a powerful Category 3 storm that arrived on Oct 24, 2005. An area west of Indian Pass was under a tropical storm watch. So far, seven named storms have formed in the Atlantic this year.
Hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30.
The National Hurricane Center forecasts the system will turn and move toward the Northeast and along the East Coast and back out into the Atlantic Ocean by Friday evening.
The storm is forecast to hit somewhere along the Big Bend area of Florida on Thursday afternoon either as a strong tropical storm or a weak hurricane.
Winds at landfall could reach 65 mph on Thursday near Cedar Key, 85 miles northwest of Leesburg. It is forecast to impact the island by early Thursday. In the tropics, Hurricanes Lester and Madeline march towards Hawaii.
A tropical-storm warning was also put in place from Indian Pass west to the Walton County-Bay County line.
North Carolina’s Outer Banks apparently will be spared from a tropical system that has been moving toward the state for days.
The storm threat is still minor, according to the National Hurricane Center, but some exercised abundant caution with past storms in mind.
Tropical Depression 9 remains disorganized this morning with 35 miles per hour winds, but convection (thunderstorms) are increasing on the eastern and southern side of the low when you look at the latest satellite images.
It is moving toward the north-northeast at 5 miles per hour and was expected to develop into a tropical storm late Tuesday or early Wednesday. I suspect they issued due to a few models increasing to hurricane strength and a blow up of convection more to the North of the suspected center. Tropical Storm Warnings are in effect for parts of the North Carolina Coast, this includes from Cape Lookout to Oregon Inlet, including Pamlico Sound. Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday morning that the system will likely dump around 5 inches of rain on areas of central and north Florida as it approaches the state Thursday. The storm is expected to cross northern Florida and southeast Georgia on Friday. As a result, another round of scattered rain and storms are expected Wednesday, some of which will be quite heavy. No warnings related to Gaston have been issued.
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Depending on the track, the Carolinas could also get some rain from the system over the Labor Day weekend.
