Tropical Storm Nestor sped toward northwest Florida on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 The National Hurricane Center designated a strong low pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Nestor on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 At 2:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Nestor was located at latitude 26.3\u00b0N and longitude 89.5\u00b0W which put it about 355 miles (570 km) southwest of Panama City, Florida.\u00a0 Nestor was moving toward the northeast at 22 m.p.h. (35 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 60 m.p.h. (95 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 1001 mb.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Warnings were in effect for the portions of the coast from Grand Isle, Louisiana to the mouth of the Pearl River, Mississippi and from the Mississippi\/Alabama border to Yankeetown, Florida.\u00a0 A Storm Surge Warning was in effect for the portion of the coast from Indian Pass to Clearwater Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Nestor exhibited an asymmetrical structure that is commonly seen in late season tropical storms over the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0 The strongest thunderstorms were occurring in bands in the eastern side of Nestor.\u00a0 Bands in the western half of the circulation consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.\u00a0 The tropical storm force winds were occurring in the eastern half of Tropical Storm Nestor.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 175 miles (280 km) in the eastern side of the circulation.\u00a0 The winds in the western half of Nestor were mostly less than tropical storm force.<\/p>\n
Drier air was being pulled around the western side of Tropical Storm Nestor.\u00a0 In addition, an upper level trough over the western Gulf of Mexico was producing southwesterly winds which were blowing toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 Those winds were causing moderate vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The combination of the drier air and the vertical wind shear was responsible for the asymmetrical distribution of thunderstorms and strong winds in the eastern half of the circulation.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Nestor will move through an environment only marginally favorable for further intensification during the next 12 hours.\u00a0 Nestor will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 So, there is plenty of energy in the upper part of the Gulf of Mexico to support intensification.\u00a0 However, the drier air and wind shear will inhibit intensification.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Nestor will start a transition to an extratropical cyclone on Saturday.\u00a0 Nestor could strengthen somewhat during the extratropical transition, but it could be over land before that occurs.<\/p>\n
The upper level trough over the Western Gulf of Mexico will steer Nestor quickly toward the northeast during the next 48 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Tropical Storm Nestor could make landfall on the coast of northwest Florida between Panama City and Apalachicola.\u00a0 Nestor will bring gusty winds to northern Florida on Saturday.\u00a0 Strong southerly winds on the eastern side of Tropical Storm Nestor will push water toward the coast and a storm surge of 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) will occur around the northeastern Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0 Nestor could drop locally heavy rain over parts of northern Florida, southeast Alabama, southern Georgia and South Carolina.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Nestor will make landfall near where Hurricane Michael did so much damage in 2018.\u00a0 Recovery efforts have been slow in that area and Nestor could set back the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Michael.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Storm Nestor sped toward northwest Florida on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 The National Hurricane Center designated a strong low pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Nestor on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 At 2:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Nestor was located at latitude 26.3\u00b0N and longitude 89.5\u00b0W which put it […]<\/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":[576,577,384,51,98,1754,100,1018,99,1753],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8655"}],"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=8655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8656,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8655\/revisions\/8656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}