Florida’s west coast feels Tropical Storm Eta’s winds

Eta weakened to a tropical storm Wednesday afternoon after a few hours as a hurricane, and the National Hurricane Center said it will continue to weaken as it edges closer to the Tampa Bay area.

South Florida’s main impact from the storm is more of the same — rain. The National Weather Service said Wednesday morning that the southeast coast could expect an inch to an inch and a half in the next few days.

As Eta approaches Florida for a second landfall in a week, this time near Homosassa Springs, a tropical-storm warning remained in effect from Bonita Beach to Suwannee River.

As of 7 p.m. Wednesday, Eta was moving north in the Gulf of Mexico at 12 mph and was about 45 miles west of St. Petersburg and 55 miles west of Tampa. Its maximum winds were 70 mph, but the wind field extended 115 miles from the center, mainly to the northeast.

After landfall north of the Tampa Bay area on Thursday morning, the hurricane center said Eta is expected to re-emerge in the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville on Thursday night.

“Although the official forecast calls for Eta to be a tropical storm as it nears the northeast coast of Florida, a Tropical Watch or Warning are not required at this time since any tropical-storm-force winds will likely be occurring over water and not inland or along the coast due to Eta’s poor convective structure that is expected at that time,” forecasters wrote.

Afterward, it could weaken to a depression while heading north along the east coast.

Forecasters said “the combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” with the highest storm surge between three to five feet expected from Anclote River to Boca Grande, including Tampa Bay.

A storm-surge warning was issued Wednesday morning from Suwanee River to Bonita Beach. A storm-surge watch was also in effect from the Steinhatchee River to the Suwannee River.

Eta is forecast to produce 2 to 4 inches of rain in West and Central Florida and an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain in North and South Florida.

The hurricane center is also tracking Subtropical Storm Theta, an eastern Atlantic storm that poses no threat to land, and a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean. Forecasters gave the wave a 50% chance of strengthening into a tropical depression in the next two days and a 90% chance of forming in the next five. If it turns into a tropical storm, it would be named Iota.