From the Associated Press and posted by our media partner at WOOD TV:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Subtropical Storm Alberto gained the early jump on the 2018 hurricane season as it headed toward anticipated landfall sometime Monday on the northern Gulf Coast, where white sandy beaches emptied of their usual Memorial Day crowds.
Though the Atlantic hurricane season doesn't officially start until Friday, Alberto has become the first named storm this year, throwing disarray into long holiday weekend plans up and down Florida's Gulf Coast. And just as Memorial Day marked summer's unofficial start in the U.S., Alberto gave it the unofficial start of what forecasters recently predicted would be an active hurricane season.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said at 5 a.m. EDT Monday that Alberto was maintaining its strength as it approached the Florida panhandle and was centered about 125 miles south of Destin. The storm that was expected to make landfall later Monday had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
"On the forecast track, the center of Alberto will move over the northern Gulf of Mexico overnight and cross the northern Gulf Coast in the warning area on Monday," the National Hurricane Center said. It warned of life-threatening surf conditions, the possibility of a few brief tornadoes in much of Florida and parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. And, it said, heavy rains are also expected in many areas.
Click for more on the story courtesy of the Associated Press.