Florida preparing for Tropical Storm Dorian

Florida is getting prepared for Tropical Storm Dorian, which strengthened overnight. As of the 5am update the storm had maximum sustained winds of 60mph. The National Hurricane Center forecast track has also shifted west and north, bringing the storm over the island of Puerto Rico, coming up west of the Bahamas as it strengthens into a hurricane. The forecast track then has Dorian turning towards Florida, with the 5-day forecast putting a Hurricane Dorian off the coast of Port Canaveral early Monday morning. But that doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet. The European model, historically one of the more accurate models, has Dorian making landfall in Jensen Beach and moving inland through Port St Lucie.

One good thing to do in preparation for the storm is to sign up for alerts in your area. Both Martin and St Lucie counties have alert systems in place, to allow officials to easily and quickly spread important safety messages, evacuation notices, and other timely warnings by phone, text, and/or email. Martin County residents should go online to Martin dot FL dot US slash Alert Martin to sign up. St Lucie County residents can go to St Lucie Co dot gov slash alert.

Florida preparing for Tropical Storm Dorian

Dorian has already forced changes to the high school football schedule for this week. Martin County has moved their game against Okeechobee from Friday night up to Thursday night. John Carroll also moved their game against IMG Academy to Thursday.

From Mike Thomas at WSTU: “Just a reminder that you can go online to https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ to get official updates on Dorian. And fun fact: the European model has Dorian traveling through my backyard.”