JIM VAN FLEET's Blog

don't know how much blogging there will be time for tomorrow once we are under the gun, so i thought i would update a little now.

as we talked about on the morning show this storm has been reminding me of charley all weekend. it is weaker, but it is also moving slower...that's not good.

the hurricane center has not gone higher than a cat one hurricane, but i think there is a real good chance that it blows up in the 86-89 degree water over the keys. i think it could easily be a medium sized hurricane if not a major one before coming ashore around ft. myers to the naples area tomorrow morning.

it will weaken once over land again, but if it does get real strong then we are looking at the chance of hurricane force winds in central florida.

two things to note -

the center or "eye" would be passing over west orlando and west orange county, and also lake and sumter counties too so be ready for that to occur tuesday evening into wednesday morning. rotating storms and damaging winds can be expected around the center. winds right now could be expected around 45mph - 75mph

secondly, the right side of the storm would be passing through orlando and all of the east coast so i would expect brevard and volusia counties to take a pretty hard thump. rough surf, beach erosion, possible tornadoes, flooding rains are all expected throughout the eastern side of the state so take action now to be prepared. it will be a long day tomorrow.

jim