WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.
— A few hours ago, a new weather report arrived on our phone.
It read: “Wind gusts to 50 mph, low temperatures to 9 degrees, thunderstorms to a 5.”
This is a lot of wind for a little island, but it was an excellent description of what’s to come: “Rain showers, thunder storms, and gusty winds to a 3.”
“Winds to 60 mph, rainfall to 1 inch, gusts up to 75 mph, and hail to a 2.”
It was one of many reports from the National Weather Service this morning that confirmed the worst of the week was over.
This is the kind of wind that blows down a tree-lined hill and knocks out power for days.
Wind gusts of 50 mph or so can make life miserable for even the most casual residents, who find themselves trapped on a street in a storm where everything feels like a hurricane.
This time of year is the time when many Americans come together for one of the most popular and popular reasons: the holiday season.
We’re celebrating the birth of Christ, we’re making plans to celebrate the birthdays of our loved ones, we’ve had a few big weddings and the weather has been so nice that we don’t want to spend a weekend in our homes without power.
In this way, the weather report makes it seem like our summer has ended.
But for some, the worst winds are still in store for the week ahead.
“Wind chills to 35 degrees, with a chance of gusts in the mid 40s,” reads a report from a local station that’s in Palm Beach County.
The wind chill of 35 degrees means the air inside is not as warm as it might be in the colder months of May and June.
“The forecast calls for thunderstorms from 1 p.m. to 8 p.p.m.,” according to the station.
That’s right, there’s still a chance for the next storm to come.
But it’s not necessarily a bad storm.
On Sunday night, it was just a thunderstorm.
But the National Hurricane Center predicts a mild to moderate hurricane with winds of 20 mph to 35 mph and gusts over 50 mph in the Miami area.
A storm surge of 6 feet or more will be possible.
The National Weather Services office says the highest storm surge is about 6 feet, but if you live on the beach, that could be higher.
“If you live in a house where there’s no storm surge, it’s really a great time to be in,” said Chris Smith, a weather forecaster with the National Forecaster Office.
“We’ve been here before.”
Smith said the forecast is very positive.
“It’s good to be out of the woods and in the sunshine,” he said.
But there are still some questions about the hurricane.
Are the winds from today’s storm changing the forecast?
If they are, how will that change the storm’s path?
And what will the storm look like?
Weather experts are concerned the winds will become stronger and will likely cause some flooding in some parts of the region.
“This is an area that has seen many storms in the past and these are just new ones,” said Jeff Davis, a meteorologist with the AccuWeather.com office in Coral Gables, Fla., which provides weather data to many weather agencies.
“What is happening now could be catastrophic.”
As the winds intensify, some of the winds are forecast to cross into the South and blow ashore, causing significant damage.
Davis said there’s a good chance the winds could reach up to 70 mph.
“I’m not going to count on a storm hitting here,” he added.
Some of the worst-case scenarios are for the storms to cross over the Florida Keys, which is a part of the Florida Panhandle.
The storm could cause flash flooding.
“There could be flash flooding in the Keys and there could be serious flash flooding down in the central Florida Keys,” said Dan Smith, meteorologist for the National Center for Coastal Information.
“In other words, you could see flash flooding all over.”
And a storm like this could cause power outages in some areas.
“For the Keys, we’d be concerned about flooding and outages, especially during the peak of the storm,” said Smith.
“And there is a risk that it could lead to power outage in some of those areas, as well.”
But if the winds continue to pick up, the storm could still end up staying at a moderate level.
Davis predicts it will pass through the Keys about 10 to 15 days after it arrives.
But he doesn’t know if that will happen this week.
It’s possible that it will take some time for the winds to pick back up.
But Davis also said the storm will likely be “pretty much back to normal” for the rest of the summer.
We can’t say for sure if the storm is going to be a threat to the entire region