On Thursday, the National Hurricane Center designated the strong tropical disturbance now moving across eastern Cuba Invest 97L, a procedural move that allowed NHC to begin running a specialized suite of computer models to better interpret its future strength and track.
Although the system has yet to form into a tropical depression or tropical storm, because it's expected to do so and affect land areas within the next few days, the NHC initiated advisories for a Potential Tropical Cyclone Four, which includes tropical storm watches or warnings for parts of Florida.
A tropical storm warning was put into effect for the southwest coast of the Florida peninsula from East Cape Sable to Bonita Beach.
Watches were put in place for the Florida Keys south of the Card Sound Bridge including the Dry Tortugas, the southern coast of the Florida peninsula east of East Cape Sable to the Card Sound Bridge and the west coast of the Florida peninsula north of Bonita Beach to Aripeka.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has also issued a state of emergency for several counties.
