Tropical Storm Colin Prompts Flood Warnings in Florida, Georgia

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A disorganized Tropical Storm Colin in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to cross Florida overnight threatening evacuations in the state’s northern and central regions before striking the Georgia and South Carolina coastlines Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Flood and flash flood warnings stretch from South Carolina to Florida where as much as 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain will fall across a large area, the U.S. Weather Prediction Center said. Some areas could get as much as 8 inches and the heavy rain could prompt some evacuations, the National Weather Service said.

The storm is forecast to strike near Florida’s Big Bend region, the marshy coast that extends from the Ochlockonee River to Anclote Key, later Monday, the hurricane center in Miami said in an advisory at 8 a.m. New York time. Its position in the Gulf of Mexico is far from the bulk of oil rigs and natural gas platforms off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.

“It is important to emphasize that one should not focus on the exact track of this system,” Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center in Miami, wrote in a 4 a.m. forecast. “Strong winds, heavy rains and coastal flooding are likely to occur well to the east of the center.”

Colin, with top winds of 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour was 315 miles south-southwest of Tampa, the hurricane center said the advisory.

Hurricane Season

Colin is the third named storm of 2016 and the second in just more than a week heralding an early start to the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. The first storm of the year was Hurricane Alex, which formed in the mid-Atlantic in January. A storm gets a name when its winds reach tropical-storm strength of 39 mph.

By the time Colin reaches the Atlantic Tuesday, its winds could peak at 60 mph as it is nudged away from the U.S. East Coat by a low pressure system over the eastern part of the country, Beven wrote.

While Colin has strengthened some since it first developed Sunday, wind shear and a poorly organized structure should keep it from getting much stronger, Beven said. Shear is when winds blow at different directions or speeds at varying altitudes and it can tear at the organization of a system.