Both Southwest Florida forecast offices wrote new heat advisories overnight, and this time the window opens at 11 a.m. rather than noon, with the Lee County index raised to 111
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Lee and Collier counties are both under a heat advisory on Friday, August 14, running from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
That is an hour longer at the front than the window either county carried yesterday. On August 13 both offices ran their advisories from noon to 7 p.m. Today both valid time blocks open at 1500Z, which is 11 a.m. Eastern.
Both products are new rather than amended. The National Weather Service office in Tampa Bay Ruskin, which covers Lee and Charlotte, issued at 12.16 a.m. The Miami office, which covers Collier, issued at 1.04 a.m. Each product carries the action code NEW in its tracking string, and each office advanced its event number by one, Tampa Bay from 0013 to 0014 and Miami from 0029 to 0030.
The contrast with Thursday is the timing. Yesterday the Tampa Bay office had written its only Florida heat advisory around Levy County before dawn, and Lee was brought in at 7.45 a.m. when that office enlarged the existing product rather than writing a fresh one. Residents who checked early yesterday got an accurate answer that was overtaken by mid morning. Today both counties were inside an advisory before one o'clock in the morning.
The Tampa Bay product forecasts heat index values up to 111 and describes the area as portions of southwest and west central Florida. Its area description names Coastal Lee, Inland Lee, Coastal Charlotte and Inland Charlotte among twenty-four zones, alongside Pinellas, Polk, Hardee, Highlands, DeSoto, Sumter and the coastal and inland zones of Levy, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota.
The Miami product forecasts heat index values of 105 to 110 and describes the area as all of south Florida. Its area description names Coastal Collier County and Inland Collier County among fifteen zones, alongside Glades, Hendry, mainland Monroe and the Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade zones.
Both products carry the same headline text, that the advisory is in effect from 11 a.m. this morning to 7 p.m. this evening. Both are rated moderate in severity and likely in certainty, and both expire at 7 p.m.
The instruction attached to the Lee and Charlotte product is the Tampa Bay office's own: drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.
The instruction attached to the Collier product is the Miami office's own and is worded differently: take extra precautions when outside, wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing, try to limit strenuous activities to early morning or evening, and take action when you see symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
