Marine Tropical Depression · Atlantic South

Sustained tropical depression force winds over the offshore waters were probably in the 30 to 33 knot range based on data from hurricane hunter aircraft, with gusts possibly as high as 40 to 50 knots.

A low pressure system, turned tropical disturbance, moving across the central tropical Atlantic formed into Tropical Storm Elsa on July 1st. Tropical Storm Elsa gradually continued westward over the next few days before turning northwestward and towards the FL peninsula on July 4th and 5th. The center passed well to the west of South FL, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, during the day of July 6th, with a minimum central pressure of 1000 mb and maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. For the most part, as Tropical Storm Elsa continued northward and towards the FL Panhandle, it maintained tropical storm intensity, though briefly achieved weak hurricane status late July 6th before decreasing back to tropical storm intensity early July 7th . Lowest surface pressure recorded over the South Florida Atlantic Coast was 1015.7 mb at Fowey Rocks and maximum sustained winds of 28 mph/24 knots at Fowey Rocks on July 6th. Recorded Tropical Storm force wind gusts were measured across the Biscayne Bay and Atlantic waters ranging from 40 to 50 mph, with higher gusts.

Although the effects from Tropical Storm Elsa were generally minor for wind, there were Tropical Storm force wind gusts and sustained Tropical Depression force winds over the Biscayne Bay and Atlantic waters, which created hazardous marine conditions.