Former Tropical Storm Michael strengthened into a hurricane on Monday morning and Watches were issued for portions of the Gulf Coast.\u00a0 At 11:00 a.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Michael was located at latitude 21.2\u00b0N and longitude 84.9\u00b0W which put it about 50 miles (80 km) south of the western end of Cuba.\u00a0 Michael was moving toward the north at 7 m.p.h. (11 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 90 m.p.h. (145 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 982 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Watch was in effect for the portion of the coast from the Alabama-Florida border to Suwanee River, Florida.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Watches were in effect for the portions of the coast from the Alabama-Florida border to the Alabama-Mississippi border and from Suwanee River to Anna Maria Island, Florida.\u00a0 A Hurricane Warning was in effect for the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Warnings were in effect for the Cuban province of Isle of Youth and for the portion of the coast from Tulum to Cabo Catoche, Mexico.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Michael continued to organize quickly.\u00a0 A circular eye with a diameter of about 30 miles (50 km) was forming at the center of Michael.\u00a0 A ring of strong thunderstorms was wrapping around the eye and the strongest winds were occurring in the ring of storms.\u00a0 Several bands of showers and thunderstorms were wrapping around the core of Hurricane Michael.\u00a0 Storms near the core were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away from the hurricane.<\/p>\n
Winds to hurricane force extended out about 30 miles (50 km) primarily to the northeast of the center of Hurricane Michael.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 175 miles (280 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Michael was 10.4.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 6.8 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 17.2.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Michael will move into an environment that will become increasingly favorable for intensification.\u00a0 Michael will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 An upper level trough over the Gulf of Mexico was producing westerly winds which were blowing toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 Those winds were causing some vertical wind shear.\u00a0 However, the upper level trough will move westward away from Hurricane Michael and the wind shear will decrease.\u00a0 Hurricane Michael will continue to strengthen when it moves over the Gulf of Mexico and it could intensify rapidly once the eye and eyewall are fully formed.\u00a0 Hurricane Michael is likely to strengthen into a major hurricane.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Michael will move around the western end of a subtropical high pressure system centered over the western Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 The high will steer Michael in a northerly direction during the next several days.\u00a0 It will get bigger and stronger during the next 48 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Hurricane Michael will approach the northeast coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday.\u00a0 It is likely to be a major hurricane at that time.\u00a0 Hurricane Michael has the potential to cause a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) at the coast.\u00a0 It will bring strong winds which could cause regional major damage and result in significant power outages.\u00a0 Locally heavy rain could cause flooding in some locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Tropical Storm Michael strengthened into a hurricane on Monday morning and Watches were issued for portions of the Gulf Coast.\u00a0 At 11:00 a.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Michael was located at latitude 21.2\u00b0N and longitude 84.9\u00b0W which put it about 50 miles (80 km) south of the western end of Cuba.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[540,541,384,145,51,50,98,1307,650,113,24,1306,493,100,99,1015,213],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6814,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6813\/revisions\/6814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}