Forecasters noted on Saturday that a tropical depression over Cuba was becoming more organized and that it would probably deliver torrential rains and coastal flooding to a large portion of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Meteorologist Raegan Medgie of Eyewitness News predicts that the system will start to affect the greater New York City area by Thursday. The system is currently close to Cuba and is predicted to get more powerful over the next few days.
The storm may have sustained winds of 65 mph by Thursday AM.
After the storm reached a maximum continuous wind speed of 39 mph (63 kph) or higher late on Friday, it intensified into a tropical depression and is predicted to turn into a tropical storm by Saturday night. The depression would be called Debby, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, if it strengthened into a tropical storm.
On Saturday morning, the core of the circulation was located just south of Cienfuegos, Cuba, but the accompanying wind and thunderstorms were dispersed over a large area that included the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and southern Florida. On Saturday morning, sustained winds of 30 mph (48 kph) were recorded at one point in the center of the Florida Keys island chain.
As the depression moves northward off the southwest Florida coast, where the sea has been unusually warm with temperatures this week surpassing 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), the National Hurricane Center in Miami predicts that the depression will get stronger.
The system is expected to make landfall as a powerful tropical storm late on Sunday or early on Monday. It will then move across northern Florida and enter the Atlantic Ocean, where it is expected to remain a tropical storm that poses a threat to Georgia and the Carolinas early on the following week. For the Dry Tortugas and most of Florida’s west coast, there are posted tropical storm warnings. A hurricane watch has been issued for a portion of the Big Bend due to the possibility that Debby may intensify into a hurricane before making landfall.
Unfurled Even on bright days, Florida is vulnerable to flooding due to the so-called “king tides,” which surge along the coast. The majority of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay, is expected to see storm tides of 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters) raised by this storm. A higher tide of 3 to 5 feet is anticipated further north in the sparsely populated Big Bend region of Florida, which is where the Florida peninsula bends westward into the state’s Panhandle region.
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