On the NHC’s website, the latest update at 7 p.m. shows Colin moving in a northerly direction at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. The minimum internal pressure has dropped to 1003 mb.
This latest update is based on information using satellite imagery, weather observations, radar and meteorological analysis. Tropical storms carry wind speeds of between 39 mph and 73 mph. This tropical storm is the earliest a third named storm has ever formed in the Atlantic basin.
A number of counties near Lake Okeechobee that include Glades, Collier, and Hendry are already experiencing heavy rains and strong winds. “It’s going to impact most of the state in some way,” Gov. Rick Scott told the Associated Press, according to Fox News. “Hopefully, we won’t have any significant issues here, but we can have some storm surge, some rain, tornadoes and some flooding.”
Governor Scott even canceled a meeting with presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday in New York, so he could remain in the state capital and monitor the weather conditions. Scott is warning residents that dangerous rainfall levels are expected, and will possibly bring with them some severe flooding.
Scott warned people to not look at the center of the storm for the heaviest rainfall, saying the heavy rain will be falling to the east and west of it. Counties in the Tampa Bay area have made sandbags available to residents throughout the weekend to prepare for the potential flooding.
“We’re surrounded on three sides by water,” said Pinellas County spokesman Nick Zoller, who said the county distributed 3,300 sand bags on Saturday, a number he expected to go up now that a tropical storm warning is in effect.
Residents in the path of the storm and even in south Florida, which is mostly out of the way of the storm, are being asked to be prepared. Residents can expect heavy rains, heavy winds and possible flooding. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are predicted for the rest of the week, finally dropping to a 50 percent chance by Saturday.
