Here is your forecast for Wednesday September 25th, 2024
Good morning, Southwest Florida!
All eyes are on the tropics as Helene continues to strengthen near the Yucatan Channel this morning. The storm will become a hurricane later today as it pulls north in the Gulf of Mexico. We will start to see impacts here in Southwest Florida later today and into tomorrow. Before we dive deeper into Helene, let's get you out the door on this morning.
We are waking up with temperatures in the upper 70s with showers and a few storms moving off the coast line and in the southern part of Collier county. These are the outer most rain bands around Helene. These will pick up throughout the day especially this afternoon and evening. Our rain chance today is around 70%. The wind will be out of the east-southeast today gusting 20-30 mph later today.
Tomorrow we will have tropical storm conditions across the entire area with winds gusting out of the south over 40mph with even stronger gusts likely along the coast. The rain bands will pick up in intensity and frequency as Helene makes its closest approach to the Southwest Florida coastline as it rapidly pulls north in the Gulf of Mexico.
Helene will become an extremely large hurricane with a wind field between 400-500 miles across. Impacts will be felt hundreds of miles away from the center.
Tropical storm warning are in place for all of Southwest Florida until further notice. This means that tropical storm conditions are likely within the warned area within the next 36 hours.
We continue with a storm surge warning as well from Thursday morning through as 3-5 feet of storm surge is likely along the coast.
FOX 4 MORNING METEOROLOGIST TRENT ARIC
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