Heavy Tropical Showers & Thunderstorms Moving Across Parts of Florida

Special Marine Warnings Posted for Strong Winds & Waterspout Activity

09/12/24 2:32pm ET

Tallahassee Regional Radar 09/12/24 2:22pm ETPhoto byNWS

Good afternoon everyone. As expected, the tail-end of Tropical Depression Francine is whipping its ferocious tail around the Southeast, and causing headaches beyond its landfall yesterday in Louisiana as a hurricane.

A powerful line of tropical energy is coming in off of the Gulf of Mexico and into the Big Bend area of Florida, across parts of the panhandle, and into northern parts of the state. While Hurricane Francis is long gone on paper, we still have tropical storm force winds to contend with in heavier bands of convection.

For this reason, the National Weather Service has issued a Special Marine Warning until 4:15pm ET for adjacent waters near and around the Apalachicola area for 40-50mph winds gusts and the risk of waterspouts.

As these storms come inland, look for the possibility of locally severe weather; with damaging winds, frequent lightning, torrential rain, hail, and isolated brief tornadoes. While earlier tornado watches have expired for now, any of these heavy cells associated with the remnants of Francine, can become a risk for tornado activity.

We will also watch very closely for the continued risk of severe weather in both North and South Dakota this evening and tonight. We have already seen a few severe thunderstorm warnings for areas of Montana with storms that have had a history of damaging winds and hail. Tonight, large hail, frequent lightning, torrential rain, and isolated strong tornadoes are possible in areas of the Dakotas.

National Weather Service - Special Marine Warning - Apalachicola, FL