Tropical Storm Claudette Nears Florida

Gaining steam in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette threw heavy rain at the Florida Panhandle Sunday, probably becoming the 1st tropical storm this year to hit the U.S. mainland.

Tropical Storm Claudette contained winds of at least 50 mph, but was not anticipated to affect the area with major flooding or wind damage. Loitering more threateningly was Tropical Storm Bill, which was speedily becoming a potent storm over temperate waters in the open Atlantic with constant winds of 65 mph. Ana, a tropical storm that was also brewing in the Atlantic, had weakened to a tropical depression.

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Skies clouded and bands of sporadic, intense rain stirred on shore in front of the storm, but the Florida Panhandle was mainly composed.

Condominiums on Pensacola Beach advised its inhabitants to carry balcony furniture indoors with winds predicted to toughen throughout the evening. A small number of cars and SUVs with surfboards hoisted on top scurried east along the Panhandle as surfers hoped to ride some last waves whipped up by Claudette before she comes ashore.

The National Park Service shut down low-lying roads that attach the restaurants and hotels to the new National Seashore on Pensacola Beach. The Park Service conveyed the message that campers would be requested to depart from the region because of the probability of flooding roads.

Rainfall of 3 to 6 inches was predicted, with remote regions getting up to 10 inches across the Panhandle, central and southern Alabama and southwestern Georgia, forecasters said.

The Bay County Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter, in Panama City, at a local school for inhabitants of low-lying regions.

A tropical storm warning stretches across the majority of the Panhandle, from the Alabama line to more than 300 miles to the east.

The storm tide is predicted to make maximum water heights of 3 to 5 feet above ground level in certain areas of the Panhandle.

Pensacola Beach is still recuperating from Hurricane Ivan, which distressed the western Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama in 2004.

At 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Claudette was stirring at 12 mph about 55 miles west of Apalachicola. The hear of Claudette was anticipated to make landfall on the northern Gulf Coast by Monday.

For the meantime, Ana’s winds had weakened to 35 mph and were estimated to move aground at the Leeward Islands in the early hours of Monday. Watches were announced for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Maarten and several other islands in the region. Ana was predicted to carry 2 to 4 inches of rain.

Tropical Storm Bill, on the other hand, was escalating in the open Atlantic distant from land, and could turn into a hurricane late Sunday or on Monday.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo had winds that had lessened to 85 mph, and it was projected to disband in the following day. Hurricane Guillermo was traveling west at 14 mph, about 995 miles east of Hawaii, and didn’t reek havoc on any land.

Even with the intimidating weather, a warmer weather system called El Nino over the Pacific Ocean is anticipated to limit the configuration of tropical storms in the Caribbean and Atlantic this year.

Forecasters altered their Atlantic hurricane season forecasts once the first two months of the season passed on without any named storms emerging.