Tornado Watch Extended for Tampa Bay Area

TAMPA, FL — The National Weather Service has extended a tornado watch for several counties in the Tampa Bay area until 8 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2.

The watch, originally set to expire late Thursday night, remains in effect for such counties as Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando. Tornado watches are issued when it is possible for tornadoes to develop in or near the watch area.

The extended watch was issued as Hurricane Hermine was poised to strike Florida’s Big Bend area.

The National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Hermine was located about 40 miles east of Apalachicola at 11 p.m. Thursday. Hermine was packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, an intensification from earlier in the afternoon. The storm was moving north-northeast at 14 mph.

The "eye of Hermine should make landfall in the new few hours," the hurricane center wrote in its 11 p.m. Thursday update. "Life-threatening surge and flooding rains expected."

Hermine will be the first hurricane in Florida since 2005's deadly Hurricane Wilma made landfall in the Sunshine State.

As of Thursday night, tropical storm force winds were extending outward from the storm up to 185 miles to the northeast and southeast of the center, forecasters say. Hurricane force winds were extending outward up to 45 miles from the center, forecasters said.

Storm surge is a real concern as Hurricane Hermine approaches Florida's shores. Forecasters say the surge combined with the tide poses the "danger of life-threatening inundation within the next 12 to 24 hours along the Gulf Coast of Florida from Indian Pass to Longboat Key."

The hurricane center reports that water could reach the following heights above ground if the peak storm surge happens at the time of high tide:

• Destin to Indian Pass - 1 to 3 feet
• Indian Pass to Ochlockonee River - 4 to 7 feet
• Yankee town to Aripeka - 4 to 7 feet
• Aripeka to Longboat Key, including Tampa Bay - 2 to 4 feet
• Longboat Key to Bonita Beach - 1 to 3 feet
• Florida-Georgia line to Tidewater of Virginia - 1 to 3 feet

On its present track, Hurricane Hermine is expected to cut across northern Florida Friday before heading toward Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina as a tropical storm. Hermine is also projected to have an impact on Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey over the Labor Day weekend.

A flood watch also remains in place until Friday at 8 p.m. for Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Sarasota and Manatee counties, among others.

Image courtesy of the National Weather Service