Tropical Storm/ Hurricane Isaias forms in the Gulf.
This morning, Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into a tropical storm. It is now named Isaias [ees-ah-EE-ahs]. Meteorologist Megan Borowski says that Isaias could become the first hurricane of the season before making landfall over the Central Gulf Coast later this week.
Right so warm gulf waters and limited shear over the southern Gulf will likely assist Isaias in steadily strengthening. Right now, official forecast guidance is that Isaias will strengthen into a hurricane tomorrow, before approaching the Central Gulf Coast on Friday. Some good news here is that wind shear is stronger over the immediate Gulf coast and that could weaken the storm just before landfall. Regardless, heavy rainfall is expected from this system particularly across the western Panhandle, and in that same area, onshore winds could contribute to both flash flooding and coastal flooding from surge.
Megan says that winds around Isaias will continue to draw a very humid airmass over the Florida peninsula, and this airmass will interact with a stalled front that is sitting over our area. Heavy rain will continue to be possible for parts of our area through the weekend, and local flooding will be possible. Gov. DeSantis has issued a state of emergency for 25 Florida counties, primarily in the panhandle.
Cocoa excited about Brightline station.
Cocoa City officials say a Brightline passenger train station could be open as soon as 2030. WFIT’s Terri Wright tells us more.
The City of Cocoa has received two grants from the Florida Department of Transportation, including 56-point-48 million dollars toward a planned Brightline passenger rail station.
The station is planned near State Road 528 and Clearlake Road and is expected to generate about 350 million dollars in economic activity each year, along with 3,500 new jobs.
The state also awarded 356 million dollars for rail-crossing safety improvements across Florida. Over the past five years, vehicle collisions at rail crossings have increased 38 percent, while pedestrian trespassing incidents are up 24 percent. Planned safety upgrades include overhead signals, improved lighting and pavement markings, upgraded pedestrian warning systems and double gates.
Outro: The station moves forward as Brightline works through a financial restructuring after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 24th.
NASA news.
Jared Isaacman says NASA "dodged a bullet" when China decided to delay its mission to the moon's south pole. If China's moon missions had they kept to their original schedule, they would have posed a serious problem for America's own plans for moon exploration. According to Isaacman, China is targeting the exact same location at the lunar south pole.
NASA is facing an uncertain future as SpaceX plans to retire its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon spacecraft. NASA last month awarded SpaceX a nearly one billion contract extension to continue flying astronaut crews to the International Space Station through 2030. But SpaceX has said that it doesn't intend to fulfill that role forever. NASA is investing in Boeing's Starliner as an alternative, despite its history of significant technical failures.
MSC’s next supership touches water.
MSC’s newest cruise ship has reached a milestone. It was moved from the construction dock in France into the water to continue work. The MSC World Atlantic is due to sail from Port Canaveral next year. It will offer weeklong voyages to the Eastern and Western Caribbean for over 6,700 passengers.
