Tropical storm ALBERTO.
No effects here in Jacksonville, Florida!! Just some wind, that's all.
Book your charter now for the Holiday weekend.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tropical Storm Alberto hovered off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts on Sunday, canceling tourist cruises, producing showers along the coast and serving as a reminder that the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season is just around the corner.
The first storm of the season that officially begins June 1 was not expected to approach landfall on the Carolinas' coast, but it had prompted a tropical storm watch and forecasters warned that it could produce high winds, heavy surf, rip currents and scattered rain across the region.
"It's making the closest approach to the coastline now, so the impacts shouldn't be much different than what we are already seeing," said Jonathan Lamb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, S.C.
At 5 p.m. Eastern, the National Hurricane Center said Alberto was about 130 miles (210 km) south of Charleston. It has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph).
It's currently moving southwest at 6 mph (10 kph), but forecasters expect it to turn northeast sometime Monday.
A tropical storm watch that was in effect for the South Carolina coast from the Savannah River to the South Santee River was dropped Sunday afternoon without tropical storm conditions reaching the coast.
A few rain bands from Alberto reached Hilton Head Island and moved south to near Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday but they moved through in less than an hour. Winds weren't expected to reach higher than 30 mph at the beaches, Lamb said. From Charleston to the north, even less of an impact was expected.
The hurricane center said the storm was expected to slow down through Sunday, then begin turning northeast and heading farther out to sea sometime Monday.
