though one of the tracks shows it going into mexico. all that could change. that s right. of course we re looking at some unpredictability because we re looking at the possibility of not one but two landfalls. right now, tropical storm alex is to the east of belize city. you can see belize right here. the purple color is the highest thunderstorm cloud tops. possibly 4 to 8 inches of rain with this system as it works across the yucatan peninsula. tropical storm force winds extend outward of 115 miles an hour. alex is shaping up to be a fairly large storm. but the question is, where is it going next? i want to show you the track because it s really changed a lot in the past day or so. it s much more consistent now. here we are with gusts up to 45 miles per hour as of 8:00 this morning. the storm working its way onshore today and tonight into the yucatan. that s why we have tropical storm warnings in effect for cities like cancun, mexico. but then the storm merges back
is jose. it meanders but some of the tropical models are showing perhaps an east coast impact. landfalls around 9:10 cudjoe key. major hurricane. some of the wind gusts in naples 142 miles per hour. i mean devastation there in the naples area and marco island 130 mile-per-hour success spand other rather gusts. tornado threat will be ongoing today because of the right-hand side of this storm. we have seen many tornado worn storms for florida. we had a tornado warn storm for jacksonville. it is going to be going through georgia and carolinas. widespread effects even though this storm is weakening. still a category 1. moving across north florida. the effects will be felt well past the center of this storm. tropical storm force winds extending 220 miles from the center of the storm. and hurricane force winds likely 80 miles from the center. you can so we are still
don t do anything to keep yourself in danger, we will be thinking about you. i want to get to senior meteorologist janice dean, live in weather center. we are looking for something good, that something good. janice: well, i do think that for the duration of the storm we will see weakening pattern. that does not put the storm surge out of the risk. the national weather center keeps say to go us rainfall threat and hurricane force winds and tornadoes which i m going talk about. the biggest threat for the west coast of florida is the storm surge, shepherd, that s not going change. we will be casting in the center of the storm right now as we expect it to continue northward pattern up to the coast of panhandle of florida. it could make multiple landfalls, that s the lowest pressure point once the center comes on shore. we may have multiple landfalls
there could be a potential for multiple landfalls, that s the lowest pressure point if the center comes on shore. we already saw that in the keys earlier this morning. we potentially could see another landfall in the next couple of hours depending if the center, the lowest point comes on shore, there s marco island, there s naples and again they re feeling hurricane force winds. this is a storm surge story. i know the winds are a big threat, the tornadoes will remain a big threat but the storm surge on particularly vulnerable coastline on west coast will be inundation of the homes and that s why we have been told to evacuate. storm surge in and around tampa area, naples, port myers and storm surge potentials all the way towards southeast coastline. we are watching tampa tonight. the high tide is at
signs, shepard. shep shp i wonder what the back of the eye s going to be like there. normally when the eye passes over and the back wall comes, it ll hit you like a hammer. reporter: right. we re going to it s starting to rain a little bit more now, so we re going to get the equipment back out of this rain and see what kind of a back end it has, shepard. shepard: all right. steve harrigan, get to safety. appreciate it. our senior meteorologist, janice dean, is live in the extreme weather center. reporter: and look at the wind gusts that we received, category four wind gusts in the naples area, 142 miles per hour. marco island where we had second landfall around 3:35 eastern time, big pine key, we re not done yet. let s take a look at those landfalls, key west, around the key west area, that s cudjoe key at 9 a.m. this morning around 130 mile-per-hour sustained winds. 3:35 at marco island and the potential for another landfall later on this evening, overnight