Tropical Storm Barry continued its slow progression toward the southeastern United States as US meteorologists warned the storm could still evolve into a hurricane and make landfall by early Monday. At 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Sunday, tropical Storm Barry continued to creep toward the Florida coast as it churned in the Gulf of Mexico, with the center of the storm located about 152 KMS south-southeast of Fort Walton beach, Florida, according to the US national weather servic The storm, moving northward at nearly nine KMS per hour, is expected to make landfall by noon on Monday (1600 GMT), the agency said. The agency continued its hurricane warning for they are spanning from southeastern Mississippi to northwestern Florida and its tropical storm warning for other parts of northwestern Florida, southwestern Mississippi and far southeastern Louisiana. However, it discontinued its tropical storm warning for the New Orleans area. If the storm does become a hurricane, though, it would probably be fairly mild, according to Miami-based National Hurricane Centre meteorologist Bill Frederick.
Category 1 would be the strongest as it looks right now, Frederick told reporters. Category 1 is the lowest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
But Frederick said that the storm was expected to bring intense rains with it -- approximately eight to 10 inches, with higher amounts in the area of northwestern Florida known as the panhandle.
Bureau Report