The National Weather Services is predicting relatively mild wind and rain from Tropical Storm Elsa in the Orlando area, but warns to watch out for possible squalls with more severe conditions.
Weather in the Orlando area by late Tuesday afternoon should begin to serve up gusts, rain bands, slightly cooler temperatures and other relatively mild reminders of hurricane season as Tropical Storm Elsa tracks offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Elsa’s projected route is west of Tampa by Tuesday night and approaching landfall by dawn Wednesday near the state’s Big Bend community of Steinhatchee. The National Weather Service is tightening up local forecasts, showing that Elsa’s offshore romp past Central Florida likely won’t bring conditions worse than a strong, summer thunderstorm. At their peak, winds in the Orlando area may be more refreshing than worrisome, except where Elsa kicks up a powerful squall, said Melissa Watson, a forecaster in the Melbourne weather-service office. “The squalls will have the stronger gusts and you could possibly approach tropical-storm force,” Watson said. There is also a moderate risk of tornadoes, she said. Lake, Sumter and Marion counties are under a tropical-storm watch, as are Gulf-coast counties of Florida’s peninsula. On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded an existing state of emergency to cover Lake, Sumter and Marion, and to cover a dozen other counties to the west and north that span an area of Florida where Elsa is expected to make a swift passage on Wednesday.
