Hurricane Dorian is pulling away from the Bahamas as it skirts the Florida coast on Tuesday afternoon. Dorian has weakened to category 2 status, but it is still a powerful hurricane.
At 2 pm, Dorian was located near 27.5 North, 78.7 West, about 105 miles east of Fort Pierce. Maximum sustained winds were 110 miles per hour. Dorian was moving northwest at 5 miles per hour, and it’s beginning to be affected by the trough that will pick it up and accelerate it toward the coast of the Carolinas.
In South Florida, a tropical storm warning remains in effect from north of Deerfield Beach to Jupiter Inlet. The tropical storm watch for Lake Okeechobee has been discontinued. There are no other watches or warnings in our area.
The hurricane warning for Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco Islands has been replaced with a tropical storm warning. We are still awaiting official assessments of what is likely to be devastating damage.
Concern now shifts to coastal regions from Fort Pierce northward to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
We’ll have another update after the National Hurricane Center issues its 5 pm advisory.
By Donna Thomas, SouthFloridaReporter.com, certified Meteorologist, Sept. 3, 2019
