Tropical Systems become Tropical Depressions

At 5:00 PM today the National Hurricane Center has upgraded two tropical systems to tropical depression status.

Tropical Depression Nine is expected to become a tropical storm and may effect central Florida this week.

At 500 PM EDT (2100 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Nine was located by a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft about 50 miles south of Key West. The depression is moving toward the west near 9 mph. This motion is expected to continue through tonight. On the forecast track, the depression will be moving away from the Florida Keys and into the Gulf of Mexico overnight. A turn toward the west-northwest and a decrease in forward speed are expected on Monday followed by a turn toward the northwest on Tuesday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph with higher gusts. Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and the depression is forecast to become a tropical storm tomorrow.

Tropical Depression Nine is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 1 to 4 inches over the southern half of the Florida peninsula and the Florida Keys through Wednesday. Isolated maximum amounts of 6 inches are possible over coastal areas of southern Florida and the Keys. This rainfall may cause flooding and flash flooding.

Gusts to tropical storm force are possible in a few squalls in the lower Florida Keys through tonight.

The National Hurricane Center will be issue an update on these tropical systems at 11:00 PM EDT.