Tropical Storm Gordon brought heavy rain and winds to South Florida on Monday and thousands of residents lost power in Miami-Dade. Beaches were closed due to the risk of rip currents. Tropical storm warnings for South Florida and the Keys were canceled late Monday afternoon as Gordon moved away from Florida.
Gradual strengthening of the storm is expected and Gordon is forecast to be a hurricane when it makes landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast on Tuesday night. Rapid weakening is expected after Gordon moves inland.
Gordon developed into a tropical storm near the upper Florida Keys on Monday morning. The hurricane center has extended the storm surge warning eastward to Dauphin Island, Alabama.
A Hurricane Warning has been issued from the mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida border. Tropical storm conditions are expected to begin Tuesday afternoon within the warning area, with hurricane conditions expected by Tuesday evening in the hurricane warning area.
Gordon continues to strengthen as maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph with higher gusts. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles from Gordon’s center.
The center of Gordon continued to move away from the southwestern coast of Florida on Monday evening. The storm brought rain to the Tampa Bay area with wind gusts, but conditions improved Monday night.
A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for Shell Beach, La. to Dauphin Island. A Storm Surge Watch is in effect for west of Shell Beach to the mouth of the Mississippi River and east of Dauphin Island to Navarre.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for areas west of the mouth of the Pearl River to east of Morgan City, La., including Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas and from the Alabama-Florida border to Okaloosa-Walton County Line.
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On the forecast track, the center of Gordon will approach the north-central Gulf Coast late Tuesday afternoon or evening, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.
Gordon is expected to produce additional rain accumulations around 1 inch, with isolated heavier amounts through Tuesday over the northwestern Bahamas and South Florida. Isolated maximum storm-total amounts of 7 inches are possible.
Gordon is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 4 to 8 inches over southwest Alabama, southern and central Mississippi, southeastern and northeastern Louisiana, and southeast Arkansas, with isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches through late Thursday.
Forecasters say the combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the warning areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide.
Storm surge could reach 3 to 5 feet along Shell Beach to Dauphin Island, Alabama; 2 to 4 feet along Navarre, Florida to Dauphin Island, including Mobile Bay; 2 to 4 feet along Shell Beach to the mouth of the Mississippi River and 1 to 2 feet from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Louisiana-Texas border.
Image via National Hurricane Center
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