Weather officials have warned Florida residents of the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which is currently making its way towards the states' western coast.
USA Today reported that Florida has already experienced buckets of rain for the past couple of days, and as of 8 a.m. EST, Tropical Storm Andrea was moving on winds as fast as 60 mph. The eye of the storm blew about 160 miles west of Tampa.
For a sizeable chunk of Florida's west coast, tropical storm warnings were widely broadcast, cautioning residents from Boca Grande to Indian Pass and Flagler Beach to Cape Charles Light in Virginia.
Officials have also released a storm warning for most of the United States East Coast, as the winds have been moving to the north and northeast at around 14 mph since Thursday morning. They forecast that the storm will move up the Eastern Seaboard over the weekend, bringing heavy rain and thunderstorms from New England to the Mid-Atlantic.
"The rain covers a good portion of the Florida peninsula even though the center is a couple hundred miles offshore," Eric Blake, hurricane specialist for the National Hurricane Center told USA Today.
Tropical Storm Andrea will consist of hard rainfall (with a projected four-to-seven inches), high winds and severe thunderstorms to the majority of Florida. AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski told USA Today that the storm is expected to hit Thursday.
However hard Storm Andrea might bear down, weather officials maintain that it will not be powerful enough to classify as a hurricane.
Rain has already poured into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, as well as Cuba's western coast.
According to the National Weather Service, two tornadoes struck Tampa on Thursday-one in Myakka City and the other in Sun City Center, causing tree limbs to break off, power lines to break and at least one home's porch to come undone.
Follow the storm's path via The National Hurricane Center's website.
