- January 17, 2025
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Tropical Storm Elsa is expected to strengthen to a hurricane before making landfall Wednesday on the Gulf Coast in North Florida, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Egmont Key, which is in the Tampa Bay area, to the Steinhatchee River in the area of Dixie and Taylor counties. A tropical-storm warning was in effect for hundreds of miles of the rest of the Gulf Coast, from Flamingo in Monroe County to Ochlockonee River, which is in the area of Wakulla and Franklin counties in Northwest Florida.
“Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 70 mph with higher gusts, and Elsa is forecast to become a hurricane before making landfall,” the National Hurricane Center said in a 2 p.m. advisory. “Weakening is forecast to begin after Elsa moves inland by late Wednesday.”
A storm-surge warning was in effect from Bonita Beach in Southwest Florida to the Aucilla River, which is at the eastern side of Jefferson County. The warning includes Tampa Bay. Parks Camp, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, said the center of the storm will probably make landfall in the area of Levy, Dixie and Taylor counties.
Camp said it will cause rain and wind in parts of the state east of the landfall.
“It’s a little bit of a lopsided storm. The east side of where that center makes landfall, you are going to get some heavy rain, 4 to 6 inches of rain in some places,” Camp said. “You will have gusty winds, winds gusting 50 to 60 mph. That could result in some downed trees and power outages along the way. Then, we’ve got a risk of storm-surge flooding along the coast, so up to 3 to 5 feet of water above normally dry ground.”
