Tropical Storm Gordon takes aim at Gulf after soaking South Florida

Tropical Storm Gordon was expected to strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall along the Gulf Coast on Wednesday. Image courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

UPI

Tropical Storm Gordon, which pounded South Florida with heavy rain, moved toward the Gulf Coast states, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.

Gordon was expected to strengthen into a hurricane just before making landfall in Mississippi sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. The storm is threatening the Florida Panhandle, and Alabama and Louisiana coasts with rain, wind and waves.

The eye of the storm was 70 miles south of Mobile, Ala., and 75 miles southeast of Biloxi, Miss. Gordon was moving 45 mph northwest with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, the NHC said in its 7 p.m. CDT update. A weather system becomes a tropical storm when winds reach 39 mph.

There was a storm surge warning in effect for Shell Beach to Dauphin Island, and a storm surge watch west of Shell Beach to the mouth of the Mississippi River and east of Dauphin Island to Navarre.

A hurricane warning was issued for the most of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida border, and a tropical storm warning was in effect west of the Pearl River to the mouth of the Mississippi River, and from the Alabama-Florida border east to the Okaloosa-Walton county line.

A tropical storm warning from the mouth of the Mississippi River west Grand Isle was discontinued.

"On the forecast track, the center of Gordon will make landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast within the hurricane warning area [Tuesday evening or night], and then move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday," the NHC said.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles from the center.

Gordon was expected to produce rainfall over 2 inches to 4 inches over the central and northwestern Bahamas, the Florida Keys and South Florida through early Tuesday. Some area in southern Florida may receives 8 inches. Between 4 inches and 6 inches are forecast for southern Alabama, southern Mississippi and Louisiana.

Further east in the Caribbean, Hurricane Florence was about 1,305 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, the NHC said Tuesday in its 5 p.m. AST update. The storm was not forecast to strike land.