{"id":345496,"date":"2026-07-19T20:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/345496\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T20:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:36:08","slug":"tropical-storm-watch-in-effect-for-florida-panhandle-as-tropical-depression-two-forms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/345496\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical storm watch in effect for Florida Panhandle as Tropical Depression Two forms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tropical Depression Two formed Sunday morning from a low-pressure system near Florida&#8217;s Gulf coast, and it is forecast to become Tropical Storm Bertha within roughly 24 hours, forecasters said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A tropical storm watch has been issued for Florida from Ochlockonee River to the Alabama border.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As of 11 a.m., the tropical depression was located about 155 miles south of Panama City, moving north-northwest at 2 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its maximum sustained winds were at 30 mph.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It could bring 1 to 3 feet of surge along Indian Pass to Chassahowitzka, Florida, according to the latest advisory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It is expected to move &#8220;near or along the northern Gulf coast during the next several days,&#8221; the hurricane center said, &#8220;bringing at least 2 to 4 inches of rain \u2014 with higher localized totals around 8 inches \u2014 through Thursday along the eastern and central Gulf Coast from western Florida to southern portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An Air Force Reserve reconnaissance crew is set to investigate the tropical depression.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Weather researchers at Colorado State University recently revised their <a data-ylk=\"slk:2026 Atlantic hurricane season forecast;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/07\/08\/forecasters-further-downgrade-hurricane-season-to-well-below-normal\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Atlantic hurricane season forecast<\/a> to nine named storms, including four hurricanes and one major hurricane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This is due, in large part, to expectations of a strong El Ni\u00f1o, &#8220;driving high levels of tropical Atlantic vertical wind shear&#8221; that tend to tear apart forming storms, according to the CSU report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The next storm to form after Bertha would be Cristobal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The height of hurricane season runs from mid-August into October. The season ends Nov. 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">_____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tropical Depression Two formed Sunday morning from a low-pressure system near Florida&#8217;s Gulf coast, and it is forecast&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[141559,28,30,29,536,9712,141520,1852,141408,120760,141558],"class_list":["post-345496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alabama-border","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gulf-coast","tag-national-hurricane-center","tag-ochlockonee-river","tag-tropical-depression","tag-tropical-storm-bertha","tag-tropical-storm-watch","tag-western-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}