UPDATE: Severe thunderstorm warning in effect until 9 p.m. ET
UPDATE:
A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for Gulf County,, Franklin County, Libertry County, southeastern Bay County, and eastern Calhoun County .
At 7:38 p.m. ET, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from seven miles east of Chattahoochee to near Mexico Beach, moving east at 30 mph, with 60 mph wind gusts.
Expect damage to roofs, siding and trees.
Areas impacted include Blountstown, Port St. Joe, Mexico Beach, Tyndall Air Force Base, Wedwahitchka, and Honeyville.
The National Weather Service’s tornado watch remains in effect until 9 p.m. ET Sunday evening,
The watch includes three counties in southeast Alabama, and 13 counties in Florida’s Big Bend, including Franklin, Gulf, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Waklulla, Bay, Calhoun, Holmes, Jackson, Walton, and Washington.
Florida cities included are Apalachicola, Carrabelle, Port St. Joe, Wewahitchka, Blountstown, Bonifay, Callaway, Chipley, DeFuniak Springs, Graceville, the Holmes County Airport, Honeyville, Howard Creek, Malone, Marianna, Monticello, Panama City, Quincy, Sneads, Sopchoppy, St. Marks, Tallahassee, and Wakulla Springs.
In Georgia the watch includes 24 counties.
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.