Stay weather and hurricane ready, Osceola.
The National Hurricane Center is monitoring a tropical disturbance currently in the western Caribbean approaching the Yucatan peninsula, and computer forecasting models are coming into agreement that it will form into a hurricane and affect parts of Florida.
Right now, those models are projecting a potential major hurricane (Category 3 or 4, most likely) making landfall late Thursday into early Friday in the central panhandle or Big Bend area.
If the current projections hold -- and pay attention for changes -- the impacts locally would be much like we saw with Hurricane Idalia last year. Osceola County saw a rainy, blustery day, but it was enough for state officials to issues a state of emergency for that area and cancel schools for a day as school buses cannot be sent out if tropical storm-force winds are expected.
All of these projections place a major storm just or our west -- putting us on the east side, the right side ... what experts call the "dirty side", which would heighten the risk of tornadoes for inland Central Florida on this projected path.
