Tropical Storm Cristobal downgraded to a tropical depression Monday morning as it continued to spiral north into Louisiana after a weekend that plagues Florida with tornado warnings including an EF1 tornado that damaged homes in Orlando.
Louisiana and parts of the western area of the Florida panhandle were hammered by heavy rain and storm surge along the Gulf Coast as the storm made landfall on Sunday.
As of 8 a.m., the National Hurricane Center said the center of Cristobal is 50 miles south-southeast of Monroe, Louisiana, and the tropical depression has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and moving north-northwest at 10 mph. Wind gusts are expected to continue for the next few hours along the Gulf Coast including parts of the Florida panhandle.
Also as of Monday morning, the NHC suspended its tropical storm warnings as well as a storm surge warning that extended into Florida.
Tropical Storm Cristobal downgraded to a tropical depression Monday morning as it continued moving northward. (The National Hurricane Center)
Cristobal is expected to turn north Monday night and continue on that path picking up speed Tuesday as it approaches Wisconsin by Wednesday.
But Cristobal’s strength is expected to diminish along that journey and become an extratropical low by Tuesday night.
As for the affected areas, New Orleans looks at the 5 to 10 inch expected rainfall pondering whether the storm will have enough breaks in the bands for the city’s pumping system to meet its latest test of keeping streets free of flood waters.
In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted.
In Florida, parts of Interstate 10 were closed Sunday due to flood waters.
The 100- to 105-mph twister toppled trees, smashed cars and damaged roofs in the neighborhoods south of downtown Orlando.
The storm’s extended wind field has a reach of up to 205 mph, but Cristobal continued to have effects on weather as far east as Central Florida, which had at least two confirmed tornadoes and other suspected tornadoes over the weekend.
Saturday’s EF1 tornado struck just southeast of downtown Orlando in the Conway neighborhood damaging eight buildings, displacing 30 to 50 residents according to the Orange County Fire Department. Another tornado was reported Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75.
EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale is the second weakest of ranked tornadoes in terms of damage done by the twisters, categorized as having winds between 86-110 mph.
Also on Sunday, possible tornadoes were spotted during a rash of warnings that stretched across the northern sections of Central Florida.
Video from SECO Energy employee Brady Smith was posted to that company’s Twitter account Sunday showing a funnel cloud behind the company’s Eustis Operations Center.
There were no reports of damage.
While Cristobal continues north, the NHC is tracking one more area of low pressure a few hundred miles east of Bermuda. As of Monday, there is a 10 percent chance the nontropical area could form into a subtropical system within five days.
Cristobal was the third named storm of the 2020 hurricane season, which runs from June 1-Nov. 30. Tropical Storm Arthur and Tropical Storm Bertha were both early storms while Cristobal formed on the first official day of the Atlantic season, actually forming from the remnants of the eastern Pacific’s first named storm, Tropical Storm Amanda.
The 2020 hurricane season names are: Arthur , Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Victy and Wilfred.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story referred to the tornado as an F1 tornado. The story has been updated to reflect its ranking on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which would refer to it as an EF1 tornado.
