Tampa Bay 'Most Overdue' for a Hurricane: Weather Channel

Weather Channel meteorlogists just released their annual Top 10 list of metro areas most overdue and vulnerable to a hurricane.

The Tampa Bay region tops the list at No. 1. The article notes that the Tampa metro region includes Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Sarasota. Evacuation, according to the Weather Channel, would be a traffic nightmare.

Second and third place on the Top 10 list go to two other Florida cities: Naples and Jacksonville, respectively.

To see the full Top 10 list, read the Weather Channel story.

(For the latest on the Tampa Bay weather forecast, see Low-Pressure Zone Tracking Toward Florida.)

Meteorologists noted that the last time the Tampa metro region was hit by a hurricane was in 1921. That storm caused millions of dollars in damage.

The population has swelled since then, and the evacuation time if a Cat 5 storm hit would be 68 hours, according to the Weather Channel, which described the Tampa metro region extending as far south as Sarasota and including all of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

Get the Clearwater Patch delivered to your email. Sign up here.