Tropical Storm in Coastal Manatee, Florida

A WeatherFlow station near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge measured a tropical storm force wind gust of 34 knots.

Matthew developed into a tropical storm on September 28th as it was approaching the Windward Islands. It quickly strengthened into a powerful Category 5 hurricane just two days later while just north of the northern coast of Colombia. Feeling the effects of a trough to the north, Matthew turned north and decimated the nation of Haiti killing over 1000 people. After Haiti, Matthew headed towards the southeast U.S. coastline and paralleled much of the east coast of Florida and Georgia before ultimately making an official landfall near McClellanville, South Carolina on October 8th as a Category 1 hurricane with 65 knots winds (75 mph) and a central pressure of 967 mb.

Matthew's closest approach to Florida kept the center of the eye about 30 miles offshore. Locally impacts were fairly limited as the western portion of the peninsula was on the dry side of the system. Tropical storm force wind gusts were experienced across the area, mainly in gusts, but heavy rainfall and surge were non-existent. Local damage amounts from Matthew were limited to about $50,000.