It does appear, after watching this beast all night, that she's going to head west across the Peninsula this evening and be poised to emerge into the gulf sometime tomorrow evening or night.

This is not good from my point of view (NW Florida Panhandle) as if the storm goes straight west across and exits around Crystal River there's a very good chance it will have enough time to make mischief in the Gulf, and there's plenty of warm water there.

The only good news would something north of west that keeps it on land, more or less. But I don't see that in the behavior of the storm at this point in time.

Blech. I don't mind rain, even lots of it, but we do not need even a moderately strong 'Cane. A "lawn furniture rearranger", ok, but nothing stronger than that please!

The 1800Z HWRF plot is, uh, "disturbing".

http://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page?_pageid=3194,21328260,3194_21169354:3194_21260388:3194_21260861&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL