Erika Bears Down On Florida

<span style=”font-size: 14pt;”>It may seem hard to believe but it’s been nearly ten years since Florida suffered a direct hit from a hurricane. That was Hurricane Wilma in 2005, arriving just eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina, which made its initial landfall near Fort Lauderdale ten years ago this week. Here’s the latest on Tropical Storm Erika, which may reach hurricane strength <a href=”At 8 a.m. Thursday, Erika was located about 85 miles west of Guadeloupe with sustained winds of 50 mph, slightly stronger early Thursday. The storm was moving west at 16 mph. The track has shifted slightly to the east, but South Florida remains in the cone. While forecasts beyond three days are far less certain, Miami-Dade County emergency workers are gearing up just in case. “What we’re telling people now is if you have a plan, good. Stay informed. If you don’t have a plan, you shouldn’t be wasting any time,” said Curtis Sommerhoff, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management. Since it grew into a tropical storm Monday night, Erika has proved hard to pin down because of a spread in computer models. On Wednesday evening, some of those models, but not all, had shifted the storm to a more northerly track, a good thing for South Florida. Because the models remained spread out, forecasters opted to keep South Florida in a cone projecting a Category 1 hurricane Monday. Still, forecasters warned the track could easily change because long-range projections have such a large margin of error: 180 miles by day four, and 240 miles by day five. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article32513988.html#storylink=cpy”>over the weekend</a>:</span>
<blockquote>At 8 a.m. Thursday, Erika was located about 85 miles west of Guadeloupe with sustained winds of 50 mph, slightly stronger early Thursday. The storm was moving west at 16 mph. The track has shifted slightly to the east, but South Florida remains in the cone. While forecasts beyond three days are far less certain, Miami-Dade County emergency workers are gearing up just in case. “What we’re telling people now is if you have a plan, good. Stay informed. If you don’t have a plan, you shouldn’t be wasting any time,” said Curtis Sommerhoff, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management. Since it grew into a tropical storm Monday night, Erika has proved hard to pin down because of a spread in computer models. On Wednesday evening, some of those models, but not all, had shifted the storm to a more northerly track, a good thing for South Florida. Because the models remained spread out, forecasters opted to keep South Florida in a cone projecting a Category 1 hurricane Monday. Still, forecasters warned the track could easily change because long-range projections have such a large margin of error: 180 miles by day four, and 240 miles by day five.</blockquote>