Gordon Getting Closer; Landfall Imminent

1. Tornado Watch until 4 am for Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties.  Get priority alerts from the Florida Storms mobile app overnight.
2. Gordon still could become a hurricane prior to landfall, although still not as of the 8/7 Central advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
3. Flash flooding the primary hazard near Pensacola and along the Emerald Coast. Highest wind and surge hazard from Gulfport, MS to Dauphin Island, AL.

Hurricane Warnings are in effect from the Mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida line with a Tropical Storm Warning from the Alabama-Florida border to the Okaloosa-Walton county line.

Tropical storm force winds extend up to 80 miles from the center of the storm. The strongest winds and largest storm surge are found on the right quadrant or eastern side of a tropical storm. This is due to the counter clockwise flow around the storm as it makes landfall.

Life threatening storm surge is possible near and east of the storm's track, accompanied by large waves as the winds push the water onshore on the east side. A storm surge of 2 to 4 feet is forecast from Navarre, Florida to Dauphin Island, AL and 3 to 5 feet from Shell Beach to Dauphin Island.
The outer rain bands of Gordon have already soaked much of the western Florida panhandle, where flooding is the primary hazard from the tropical storm.

Flooding is the primary hazard along the #EmeraldCoast from Tropical Storm #Gordon.

Left map: 2 to 3 inches has already fallen in #Bay #Gulf and #Franklin counties.

Right map: Additional rain of 2 to 4 inches possible near #PCB, 4 to 6" near #Pensacola. #flwx pic.twitter.com/uNQL1Ao6oS

— Florida Storms (@FloridaStorms) September 4, 2018

Total rainfall accumulation from Gordon is expected to be between 4 to 8 inches over the western Florida panhandle and southwest AL. A Flash Flood Watch continues for these areas through Wednesday morning.

There is a risk this afternoon and tonight for a few tornadoes to develop near the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle as the tropical system approaches landfall.