Via Click2Houston.com:
At 1 p.m., Bonnie was located at 25.8 north, 81.1 west, or about 55 miles east-southeast of Naples, Fla. The tropical storm had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving west-northwest at 18 mph.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for Florida’s west coast from East Cape Sable northwood to Englewood, and for the northern Gulf coast from Destin, Fla. to Morgan City, La.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the eye of Bonnie came ashore near Cutler Bay, about 20 miles south of Miami, near midday.
There were no immediate reports of damage from the storm that so far has just spread some rain across South Florida.
“This is going to be mostly a rainmaker type of storm,” KPRC Local 2 meteorologist Anthon Yanez said. “We’ve had heavy rain in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.”
Bonnie was expected to be back over water later in the day, but an upper level low in the Gulf of Mexico will help prevent the storm from getting much stronger.
“What it’s doing is bringing in some shearing winds into Bonnie, so as Bonnie enters the Gulf of Mexico, while the water is extremely warm, the upper level winds really aren’t that favorable,” Yanez said. “None of the models have this becoming anything more than, at the most, a 50 to 60 mph storm.”
The National Hurricane Center predicted that Bonnie will make landfall in eastern Louisiana or in Mississippi on Saturday night.
Texas is no longer in the storm’s cone of uncertainty.
