The National Hurricane Center is expecting winds of 74 miles per hour or greater when the storm makes landfall on Thursday night.
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UCF states that it will continue to monitor Tropical Storm Hermine and sandbag certain areas in preparation for possible flooding. Fla., to the South Santee River in SC. A tropical storm warning covered the top third of the state and extended into south Georgia near Brunswick.
Florida is under a bevy of watches and warnings.
If the center’s forecast “is even close to being accurate, we will see gusty winds and som heavy rain showers by Sunday”, Korbel said.
Forecasters have been cautioning those along the coast not to focus exclusively on the point where Hermine makes landfall.
The system had been stationary, but has been exhibiting a faster move to the north Wednesday afternoon. An outside chance for the storm to reach minimal hurricane level exists before probable landfall. A hurricane watch covers a similar area, from Indian Pass near Apalachicola Bay to the Anclote River.
Rising waters could reach up to one to seven feet above ground in certain areas. In Pinellas County, the southwest county that is home to Clearwater and St. Petersburg, schools have already been closed for Thursday and a flood warning is in effect.
Here is the latest on Hermine and the forecast track of the storm. Most of that area can expect 2 to 5 inches of rain through Friday, with locally higher amounts, she said. These rains may cause life-threatening flash flooding. “You’ll be on the east side of the circulation of Hermine”. The storm could then dump between 4 and 8 inches of rain in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina on Saturday with up to 10 inches possible in some parts.
Forecasters said people in the central and northern part of the Florida Peninsula and the eastern part of the Florida Panhandle could face tropical storm to minimal hurricane conditions with power outages, flooded roads and airline disruptions.
The First Alert Forecast Team continues to track an organizing system in the central Gulf of Mexico. Tropical storm conditions are possible in the tropical storm watch area by Friday.
The National Weather Service in Mobile said winds of up to 25 to 30 miles per hour in gusts will be possible tonight near the coastal areas of Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle. Elsewhere in the tropics we are watching Tropical Depression Eight and Hurricane Gaston along with a weak disturbance which may develop over the weekend.
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Tropical Storm Hermine is expected to bring localized flooding and the threat of tornadoes when it brushes across the Golden Isles early Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Jacksonville.
