clearwater's investigation began back in january. that's when citizens complained fire inspector duanne anderson was hanging out in city parks instead of doing what taxpayers pay him $70,000 to do. >> anderson swears that's a lie. >> for lack of a ?er term this is what -- of a bert term this better term this is what you call a witch hunt. >> investigators shadowed him for days they insist his location and reports didn't match. and sometimes when they did anderson never left his vehicle. >> i do a fine job. i have not falsified any information. >> that's not what the city claims. another inspector spent two months redoing 289 inspections. that's you paid for. investigators claim there were 80 glaring violations that prove anderson faked his reports. >> did you put people in danger? >> absolutely not. >> that's not what his bosses say. they turned up problems at a nearby machine shop. investigators say violations he missed at this warehouse could have killed people because it for reloading bullets. >> it was kept in metal cabinets that

tampa right now with 81 degrees and it is 79 in clearwater and saint petersburg. the winds are calm and we will today coming out of the west and that will push any of the very random showers further inland. we will take that high up to about 91-92 degrees later on today feeling more like 100-102 so make sure you have plenty of water. find some shade and otherwise, enjoy the sunshine. even less rain chances tomorrow. i will show you the weekend outlook in detail coming up in less than 15 minutes. right now, back over to you. >> it was two years pinellas trail where police found the body. >> and a tip led to the arrest but now, the investigation is all the way back to square one. michael explains why a judge throughout his confession. >> [ screaming ] come out, jesus! [ screaming ] jesus! >> reporter: that is because he walked out of jail with three ahead of him. >> he doesn't want to talk about the case.>> reporter: clearwater says his id and wallet were found inside jones home. jones happen to find them walking the trail and pick them up as a good samaritan. his a

we're going to kick-off in the clearwater area. a new accident with injuries involved, palmetto street right at myrtle avenue. i have an update on this accident in bradenton. fhp is telling me it's a fatal crash, folks. eastbound state road 70 at 22nd street courts, the eastbound lanes but significant westbound delays. and i will keep an eye on this one for you. and in the next report, we will have an update on the overturned semi-truck. >> we will check back. thank you. >>> karaoke in a golf cart. >> the unlikely group singing a hit song from the movie "grease." >>> and where this alligator was spotted in the bay area. you're watching news channel 8 i think everyone's home becomes a part of them or takes on their character. and you lose so much of that stuff in the flood that made the house your home. and if i would have had to float the cost of repairs... ...i'd have probably lost the house. the flood insurance allows me to put my house back together. f0 >>> neighbors in pasco county got quite the spectacle. he is in no hurry. an

five miles west of clearwater beach. still raining itself out and for the time being, intensity and heavy rain. further south, west showers that -- tierra verde. 11 miles north of hernando county a few sprinkles. and temperature update, 81 in tampa. 80, palm harbor, sun city center you goto enjoy thatat 73. mid-70s from dade city to inverness and last hour of this. 80s keeping this. made it to 82 venice. 80 in sarasota across the iterior pushing 80. and some of these but not until after 2 p.m. what it faels like is 82 in tampa and 85 in sarasota as we do have that muggier feel to the air near the coast. thanks to that onhis or her wind. our ridge of high pressure has slipped south and pretty much on top of us suppressing some of our rain because of drier air, but because of the win flow, you get the idea, by 3:00 scattered storms that shift inland on the sea breeze. by 6:00 those wl east midday hour. a couple of showers that will history inland on the sea breeze as we head into the latter part of the evening, those storm

several people headed to clearwater for good food and music. it features lobster dinners. a variety of other food vendors are it was originally launched as the palm harbor lobster festival but after such success it was too big is and they moved it to clearwater. >>> the most accurate weather team in florida. abc action weather. >> lobster. >> sounds pretty good. >> you know the difference between florida lobsters and minnesota lobsters right? >> claws. >> clouds and showers moving through. right now great. 6:15 there's your live look from river gate tower. there's still a few showers around but nothing that's going to get in the way of your enjoyment of this evening. a quick look at that forecast for you. right now #89d degrees. going -- lt degrees. going -- 89 degrees. 84 by midnight. ran don raining dying down tonight. we're going to be clearing and mild into the overnight hours but starting to see the tropics bubble up. three areas to watch out for right now. here's fiona looks like it's going be a fish storm. ows a 50% chance of dwobment. but the folks -- development b

petersburg, clearwater and tampa. also looking at 85 degree reading with all of that concrete down at the air force base. here's the way those storms are going to go. kind of 1:00, we will see them lining up alongside 75 pushing inland. by 6:00, a few very spotty showers located in eastern portions of pascoe county into pope county and this will continue to push off toward the east coast. tomorrow, about 1 o'clock or so, we will start to see a few storms with him up and again, they will push inland less moisture in the air on sunday so we only have about a 20% once will be se through the morning hours and shifting westerly and that is where we will have push of sea breeze pushing those storms inland. wanted to put seasoned a light chop. your high tide comes at 4 o'clock this afternoon and low tide is not until 10:30. the sun will set at 8:03. concentrating on the weekend, 20 to 30% chance of highs will remain in the low 90s but hold onto that. low rain chance and warm temperature pattern right to the workweek, as well

we are starting off at 80 right now and a. 74 clearwater. wins mostly calm coming in and out of the southeast but it will change and become westerly later on. we are looking for a high today of 91. as we watch the temperatures like 102 by later this afternoon and even warmer inland. i will show you the best chances of rain and time them out for you. >>> breaking overnight, a car slams into a police cruiser and another vehicle causing both cars to go up in flames. let's take a look at the scene. just a few hours ago, you saw us . the officer stopped on the bridge to help the driver whose car had car slams into the police cruiser. the police cruiser did not earn and the accident is still being looked into. let's take a last look at i-270 five. looking pretty good. >>> 6:02. a bay area man is waking up a first time in two years after a judge throughout his murder confession. michael believes he is games -- michael explains. >> reporter: two years ago, lidia's body was found just off the pinellas trail. a tip led investigators to the person they

this is a view right now from clearwater beach at over -- frenchies. heavy rain has fallen since midnight. citrus county has seen the most rain. the bulk of the heavier rains shifting to the east coast. but those are some impressive numbers. almost two inches in tampa. over that in downtown st. petersburg. as we look at the estimates

that is clearwater i think. is 9 a.m. on august 20. >> anjuli: good morning for you guys. >> alcides: i was waiting their that to come up. >> anjuli: welcome to "good day tampa bay" guys. i am anjuli davis. >> alcides: i am alcides segui, lindsay milbourne with our forecast. >> lindsay: it look beautiful. rain chances lower than ave average. 84 degrees here in tampa. as we look west, couple of towering clouds. a cloud that is shrinking because the rain fading away well offshore of sirata beach. the plates to be out there. sky tower radar which is still active, not on land. let's zoom in. watching since 6 a.m. it is still there now literally less than a mile from some of the area beaches including clearwater beach for you. more like three miles offshore. we will watch that. elsewhere, one mall shower that was well west of u.s. 19 and citrus county. we are waiting on that onshore push to bring a few spotty showers to the area. 84 in tampa. 8 in sarasota. winter haven a.t 84 mid-90s as expected. big-time heat this weekend be

here's some shower activity headed very close to clearwater beach now. there's one tropical downpour working from southwest to northeast and another one into citrus county. our temps at this hour, here not bad. they're in the mid 70s the most rain chance, which by the way, today will run 60% to 70%, high temperatures should stay in the upper 80s so no extreme heat the next seven days. the problem is this. computer models are painting a very, very wet seven-day forecast and i'm talking about several inches of rain a possibility, especially north of us right through early tuesday. so i really need you watching our news cast over the weekend. skytower radar app as well because we do have, again, the the next several days. coastal areas in the morning, inland locations in the afternoon. >>vanessa: thank you, dave. and of course, just a reminder, folks heading through north pasco county along 41, you will be diverted northbound and southbound in the area of bowman so that's going to be close to the county line road area. pasco lake acres, this is an earlier s

they were, -- in clearwater illegally truck is scary. how many times do you hit the road less on the -- on less than that. >> watch at sunday 9:00 -- 11:00 after doing weather, i only get 2.5, three hours of shoes -- sleep. >> i do not think that a good idea. >> the 11 o'clock show on sunday good times. loads arrest and i'm pacing myself. looking to tampa bay, south tampa southern crosstown expressway through the middle and no problems on the road and everybody has got their proper rest and today will be a very restful day after what we've had over the past couple of weekends with all that rain and skies, clouds around and return to typical summertime stuff. that is the good news. we are into the dog days of summer and that is very, very pertinent today. i will show you in a second. clear, how to start and showers and storms show up later. some could be happy but for right now nothing is showing up on the titan.red are but we do have storms movi yesterday because of the predominate southeast wind i will show you one more time as this goe

i will show you how it affects the seven-day forecast coming up . 77 now sunshiny skies in clearwater, st. petersburg 81 with travelers from the east at 15 and tampa partly cloudy skies he's northeast winds at seven with those persistent east winds today we will continue to see the storm's from the middle of the state where the east coast back toward us and by 3:00, we will see some pretty good storms from manatee and sarasota counties all the way up into hillsboro and portions of pasco county. along the coast we will see a pulling offshore but right along the coast some pretty heavy rain and a we will see another band come through and dissipate by 930, 10:00. sunday, we watch the same sort of scenario with the winds coming in out of the east but we will start to see that additional moisture and that will give us better rain chances are we will put in 40% chance of rain today as we push into the upper 80s toward 92 degrees under it will be just a little bit cooler but as we go through sunday and into monday we will get that increased moisture. 87 degrees your gulf water temperature an

city of clearwater officials are warning the beach visitors about stingrays. the life guards raised the purple flag to let people know there are dangerous marine life swimming by nearby. nearly a dozen people were already stung so far this week. they're usually treated here on the beach. our life guards clean the wound and then they'll soak it in warm or hot weather for about an hour. the pain usually lasts about an hour or two. >> a reminder, shuffling your feet as you walk the the water helps. the vibrations scare the stingrays away. >>> south american weather the rio, 7:00 a.m., 73 degrees. 85 degrees at noon. and 88 degrees is going to be a tomorrow, much hotter as the olympics start to warm up. back in the bay area, 91 degrees. the rain chances are relatively low. most computer models agree we're heading into a drier period. not lower humidity, but fewer showers. 86 degrees the jacksonville tomorrow. a 20% chance of seeing a shower here. 7:30 game time. i hope you get to check out the bucs. a nice shot from laura wood young the river view. look at these t

long center charley belcher is live in clearwater this morning. hey charley. hey i along with jen epstein. >> it's a duo. and a walter, yeah i you got lot of donations too. we're also surprised despite what's going on behind us and all are us this heavy rain >> iet not good surprised good day viewers best viewers in world more than dozen donations. look at this. dropped off this bag full of everything from highlighter and pencils you know what i like that he included a mirror for your locker. essential. a dad of a high school girl, this is great. i mean what a thoughtful, what a thoughtful thing to bring. really thinking outside the box. and we're putting it inside the box. 1501 north belcher road where you will find long center. rain or shine, jennifer and ten o'clocks these supplies will be given to pinellas county and they will distribute them to classroom that is are in the most need. >> yes there are a lot of them. yeah there are. some some point we will talk bour favorite back to school memories. oh the memories. generations apart. all right stick around

a portion of south gulf view boulevard in clearwater is there. the sign reads road closed because of flooding. ryan raiche joins us live with the warnings we have been seeing throughout the day. >> reporter: i can tell you live long clearwater beach, the rain has not let up all afternoon. that in part prompting beach patrol to issue the red flag warnings today, meaning conditions in the water simply too dangerous to mess with. large curve a strong current -- large surf and a strong current creating a hazard for beach goers. beach patrol pushed back and relocated the lifeguard towers. the red flags went up shortly after that. clearwater beach's water safety supervisor telling me today that south winds are causing a strong lateral current, running parallel with the shoreline. and that's the risk. you're running a big risk. >> all of our high tides for the next several days are forecast to be strong tides. that along with any kind of weather the gulf could be a recipe for disaster. >> reporter: and back out here live, you can see in this live pictur

. >>> veryig clearwater. the clearwater ice arena, see it there, it opened up its doors for the first time for the public. check out the new nhl size ice rink, all for free. it's a pretty high tech rink. the owner tells us that this is the first rink built in the state of florida in the past 16 years. and it can be taken down, and put up in just two days. very, very efficient. all afternoon and evening, facilities. and they gave it a big thumbs up. >> it was wonderful! it was absolutely wonderful. kids had a great time, and it was just a wonderful day. >> it's pretty awesome! i haven't ice skated since i was like 5 and i haven't fallen down yet. >> we can hold tournaments, bigger hockey tournaments. >> perhaps training some future ym and with the heat we've been having, it is a good place to go and cool off. >>> late august, above arm heat in the forecast, perfect time to check out the rink. we had a full spectrum of beautiful photos. john sent in the sunrise from venice, a beautiful shot, and then we closed

clearwater, st. pete, let's go in tighter here, are you morning, you are probably up now with all the lightning, a lot of thunder across downtown and this continues to head to the north. frequent lightning with heavy rainfall and this will be the case throughout the day today. not going to rain every minute but we'll have bands of heavy rain that will move through. case in point, what i'm talking about, pinellas getting the bull's-eye of the rainfall this morning. but it's not just you, all of us will begin to fill in. especially along the coast. i think that is where we're going have issues as far as the flooding, because of the ra falling upwards of 9 inches along the coast. much less as you get away from the coast but not just from the rainfall, also from the coastal flooding potential as the storm begins to get closer tomorrow, perhaps 1 to 2 feet of storm surge coming up. and a little higher as you get further north. all the green you see here, all of this under flood watches, national weather s

clearwater, 90. storms are on the way anywhere from clearwater south and pinellas and st. pete also picking up a thunderstorm where that severe thunderstorm warning is in effect. there's your yellow box in effect until 6:45 tonight. even the possibility of a funnel cloud or two. kind of storms. the flooding is an issue right now. please avoid the standing water at all costs. you don't know what is underneath the water. this evening through 8:00, things wind down rapidly. by 10:00, it's gone. look out into the gulf and see lightning. but we will be dry. you will be dry wednesday morning. mostly sunny skies. not just wednesday morning but thursday and friday mornings as well. the afternoon, just as was the case today. you will get your heat and your energy, expect storms. coverage today only 30 to 40%. same setup for thursday and friday. now, what happens this weekend all depends on what is going on here. we're not worried about fiona. we're not worried about gaston. mere is -- here is what is going on. the chances are probably a little higher than that. it boils down to whe

a lot of folks will be heading out to clearwater beach. the circles apology beach camera looking fantastic as well. looking great out there. a few thunderstorms. but not terribly widespread. it's a typical trend out there. go ahead and show titan doppler radar. and i'm coming over to the right part of the set. sorry. i'm throwing everybody off, i'm sure. here we are. take a look at the radar. you can see that we do have a and moving away now from the mid-florida amphitheater where the dixie chicks are playing tonight. across i-75, rain is close to -- in sumter county, moving out of the brooksville area and just to the north of dade city. not a ton of rain. also i-75 near north port we have the storms bubbling up. they are headed back towards port charlotte. it's hit or miss out there. nothing too extreme. mixed bag. once we get past sunset through about 10:00, the showers and storms taper off. you would be more likely to see them east of i-75 or around poke or highlands county, a few linger showers between 8:00 to 10:00. overnight, we are

south of clearwater. that's how much rain has come down in pinellas county. but you're talking about a storm which is hundreds of miles away. look at this visible satellite picture. now we can only use this when the sun is up. but this we'll show you exactly where the center of tropical depression 9 is. there it is. their your center of the storm. looks like it obviously is morning. the clouds are expanding. getting some out flow. here's tampa as reference. there is the center of the tropical depression. the plane is on its way out there. i think once it gets out there it finds tropical storm force winds you have a yourself a named storm. you can see clouds expanding. now we're on eastern side of this storm. so as it slowly drifts north and then turns, like russell and i just talked about to the northeast, you're going to take all of this moisture, and you're going that's why i'm really concerned about the rainfall. here current wind speeds out here buy buoy 42003. should name them. anyway, 29 mile per hour winds around this over clearwater beach. 18 mile per

clearwater at 90. and st. pete right now at 87. winds fairly calm across tampa bay at the moment as those showers and storms through, expect the winds to pick up. the futurecast, at 5:00 showing the rain just about where we're seeing it right now. and by 8:00, most of the storms are right along the coastline or right along the i-75 corridor with the inland areas drying out. all of us dry by midnight. very similar pattern lately tomorrow morning blue skies and sunshine. fair weather clouds but by 2:00, 3:00 we start to see the showers and storms bubbling up their way closer to the coastline. very similar pattern for tomorrow and timing. tropics, fiona not concerned worth this storm. going to remain out in the atlantic. may affect bermuda some but other than that does not look like it's going to be any threat to land. i'm watching another batch of storms just moving off the coast of africa. and that one has a 20% chance of developing over the next five days. so early next week we'll be watching it as it gets a little bit closer to th

tampa bay lobster fest taking place in clearwater later on today. live maine lobsters being flown into town just for this event. we will have live music out there, crafts, wine samples and a lot of desserts. dinner includes a one and a quarter-pound lobster. cost you $10 to get in and $25 to for dinner. >> alcides: 35. maybe our grilled cheese fans. >> anjuli: a lite >> alcides: i know you like grilled cheese as well. the cheese festival is taking place in sutton park. 20 food and dessert trucks serving up gourmet grilled cheese and desserts. expect arts and craft and live entertainmentment. it is free but you will have to pay for those sandwiches. coming up later in the 8:00 hour of "good day tampa bay." folks will be in the studio and cooking up grilled cheese sandwiches. >> anjuli: yum. >>> the olympics are wrapping an olympian. the summer olympics. talents and ability with olympic activities. it will cost you from $10 to $13. and this is all happening to today. >> lots going on. >> anjuli: lots going on there. >> lindsay: something for the kids

they are supposedly very effectiv roundtable here at the clearwater health department. he's going to travel to pasco county about three hours after that so 10:00 here, then about 1:00 p.m. in pasco county. so a lot of discussion they will see what if any of it bears some fruit. live in clearwater, james tully, abc action news. >>> doctors in south florida are now treating a newborn baby girl who tested positive for the zika virus. the baby's mother contracted the virus during pregnancy the baby now 2 months old has not been diagnosed with microcephaly but doctors say the child is suffering from other zika-relatedded side effects like pigment changes in her eyes and calcium deposits in the brain. >>> and in the classroom, more than 4,000 students go to school in the so-called zika zone in south florida. some students even learned about zika in a yesterday. >>> in hillsborough county officials are making sure to remove standing water on campuses and sending paperwork home so parents can talk to the kids about the virus. >>> it's a different concern in california. district

clearwater and st. petersburg. clouds around tampa where it's 79. those folks they are probably going to get on the moist side. soggy cosplay and maybe escape as we get out of the rain as we ramp up to mid 80s with more shower chances today. tell you exactly when those rain fall amounts are going to be hitting the hardest coming up in just about 12 minutes or so. lindsey, that's when you can try to figure out what mammals. >> give you a hint, it's not me. opened all lanes of state road 60. troopers are still on the scene investigating an overnight crash, serious crash there with injuries at one point had all of the east and westbound lanes shut down. good news. right now, if you are about to walk out the door, you should have no troubles getting through that area. once again, state road 60. >>> new video just into our news room this morning, 13 people are dead and 6 others injured after an explosion and fire in northern france. police say the fire started around midnight at a birthday party. right now, investigators say the explosion that caused the

bentley was arrested in clearwater. he's now awaiting transportation to the pinellas county jail. >> anjuli: a possible repeat porch pirate, and the thief could be targeting south tampa. they're looking for this thief caught on a neighbor's doorbell camera. it shows a clear package of the package thief in action. walking up and bending down to find the delivery and walking calmly back to the car of the police are investigating the case, and neighbors believe there could be more victims out there. on a neighborhood watch page many reported missing packages. they say what was inside was inexpensive. an ipad case and key chain from amazon, but he worries more expensive items could be next. >> it was just a petty theft, but the fact it's more of a violation, you know, that makes us feel uncomfortable. we hope if this is an ongoing problem that maybe this video can bring a stop to it. >> anjuli: take a good look at this surveillance video again. they believe this man is in his 30s or 40s and about 5'8" and 170 pounds. anyone

we are about 10 minutes away from sunrise. 79 clearwater, 78 st. things are very clear out of the east and southeast. taking a look at the southeastern united states, we see that massive moisture to the. this has continued to slowly migrate west so the folks in southern louisiana are going to get a break today. houston will be under the gun as well as the texas coast. for us, breezy and hot early and then showers coming in by midafternoon. this is graphic refresh model. you can see the storms heading from south florida towards us and by 6:00, good coverage as we wind down the beach days. could make for some very interesting rides home from the bay area beaches. you will see the storms along the southern marriott -- barrier islands first. looking for a high of 92 for tampa and plant city. watch for the very warm moist maggie air mass. cooler on the coast at 88 at longboat key. golfers, expect a warm one, starting off around 80. by noon, 85 and clouds will thicken. and then the showers will show up. out of the water, 86 degrees and a good boating day

clearwater beach e you're going degrees. the water temperature in the gulf is 86. only about 30% coverage of storms tomorrow, that's less coverage than today. timing will be similar but we went have quite as many storms out there. it's really looking like a fabulous day to be outside. just got to beat the heat. once we head into the weekend we are going to see a pattern change. and we're going to go to a west to east flow. so what that means is that we'll have chances for rain before noon across tampa bay and even a chance for a coastal shower in i think that's more likely for sunday than for saturday. the storms will fire up and mover inland through the afternoon. that will help to keep the temperatures just a little bit lower especially on sunday. but, again, we're still looking ate pretty nice pattern overall. just wanted to show you the tropics real quick. early next week we're going to wants to keep an eye on this next batch of storms that's just starting to roll off the coast of africa. that one could be impacting some of our caribbean islands into late next

the coast guard sent boats, a helicopter, and a plane from clearwater... and conducted more than 34 searches, covering more than ten thousand square miles. some social studies students in polk county just got a real lesson on ?global affairs. the students at lawton chiles middle school met with exchange students from japan. they talked about their homeland and culture. the exchange students are staying in the area, and going to school here: as part of the program, the exchange students also gave the middle-schoolers lessons on origami and calligraphy. new this morning: turning adversity into advantage. when you're disabled, it can be hard to reach out and try something new... but there's a local fox 13's laura moody reports, the "diversity initiative" is helping disabled people find the jobs they were always ?able to do... they just didnt have the ?courage to try them: 1:29 i know... i saw... laughing! e'njoli pruden has a great sense of humor. she laughs a lot- despite tremendous adversity. the world around her is silent- e'njoli is deaf.((nats)) so isn't

pete, pinellas park, largo and clearwater. they open at eight a-m, and its on a first come, first serve basis. again... it's completely free. you ?have to keep calm on the roads.. especially these days.. take it too far.. and once again, on a tampa roadway.. road rage turned to funfire.. fox 13's alcides segui joins us now from the jail to explain.. toss to weather... tonight.. rio takes center stage .. we'll take a look ahead to the olympic opening ceremonies... ((jen)) and a ?glitch.. that makes it look like someone knows the winner before the event is with all that's at stake we need patrick murphy in the senate. patrick's a strong progressive, who's fought special interests on behalf of working families and won. it's why they're attacking him. don't believe the negative attacks. i've counted on patrick to protect social security. to fight for a woman's right to choose. and to stand up to the gun lobby to reduce gun violence. i count on patrick murphy. lets the games begin! the opening ceremonies for the summer olympics in

clar down south of clearwater -- char down south of clearwater. i love this one. it looks like that boat is on fire, but. >>> just the sun through that cloud, beautiful shot. almost reminds me of the olympic torch. the rains have wound down and tomorrow will ramp back up again mid-afternoon, but in terms of coverage probably only about 30, maybe 35% of the area picking up any rain. right now that rain has moved offshore with temperatures as we mentioned on the hot side today. we hit the mid-90s across many areas, lutz 84, tampa 85, in sarasota, 95 in tampa. outside now skies are mostly clear, tampa 85 degrees, clearwater 82, st. pete 80 degrees. we're not going to see a lot of change the next several days. so that means your mornings you're good to go. whatever you have planned outdoors at least until about 2:00, you've got nothing to worry about except for the heat, of course. drink lots of water. we'll be around night degrees by lunchtime. look at futuca through 11:00. maybe eastern sections of polk county by lunchtime could pick up an isolated shower or storm b

here is the big one over clearwater and along gulf to pay. tan you see that storm from the and now a few storm firing up in new tampa. that one is not moving much. this is along the outflow boundary here. so i think that between now and 7:00 a lot of this is going to fill in. so if you are planning on doing something outside this evening. you know pay attention t is outflow moving this -- attention. it is outflow moving this way a and then a couple of storms inland just getting going with the outflow boundary moving to the west. and on top of that for kicks. we have the mass of weather in the gulf. this is moving to the west coast but i think a lot will weaken as the storms and the heating take over. don't forget your app. i'm back at 5:45 with more views. sunshine this morning as expected. and storms >> heating. satellite and radar shows the pesky low which is helping to throw that moisture our way. that is moving away but as expected today, you would have one more day with influences from that low. it will move away and tomorrow 80s and 90s

out in the clearwater area, able to capture that. a familiar look in the sky, they rolled off the shore of mexico. we've been seeing thunderstorms develop inland, i think we'll see that in the forecast area raise in the upper 80s near 90 degrees. we still see shower activities, saw a couple minutes ago, maybe a tu light shower -- few light showers from the northern counties, mostly polk county, seeing rain this hour in the eastern sections of hillsborough, a few showers remain, that's very light stuff and essentially dissipating. we could see a few onshore showers come in thanks to the light southwesterly flow, we'll keep that the chance we've seen, t or really for the morning commute as we've seen the last couple days. putting a shower chance, storms will increase as the day goes along. especially if it gets heating going on, a bit more sunshine we could see in those spots that can help to enhance some of the shower activity. 76 right now, tampa international. 75, temple terrace, upper 70s in clearwater beach. that's the good story

anchor james james in clearwater. this is a tragic sto >> reporter: it is, hundreds will gather to honor pete huffman later today. a funeral procession will conclude where i'm standing at the calvary catholic cemetery. as i mentioned it's a tragic story and has taken a tremendous toll on the huffman family. cancer forced him into early retirement after he spent the last 17 months in treatment. doctors convinced his long career fighting fires, exposure to toxic chemicals contributed to his diagnosis but as to cover his chemo treatments, that cost $18,000 every time he went in. before he died huffman pressed for florida to pass a cancer presumption law making sure that firefighters are guaranteed benefits if they get cancer. his family knows even if the law is passed tomorrow it won't help them but still want to see it passed. >> i would be very proud. our son is a firefighter and yes, it's too protect him, protect the firefighters that are working now, protect the ones that are coming in. >> i think just to have a litt

and closer to home, the clearwater marine aquarium are hoping to li lure pok?mon trains this prevent running from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m., and despite scathing reviews suicide squad opens this weekend. it scored the biggest august debut ever, take in more than $135 million. place. and tampa bay comic con has come and gone but it was certainly a memorable weekend for many. star wars fanning big and small had light saber battles from just about any comic book or video game you with with think of we caught up with a couple of female ghost buster who is told us why they like the all-female cast of this >> wam watching it i felt really empowered and having the female spin on something i grew up with as sawsome. >> this was the fifth year for the tampa bay comic con and we have not been once. >> we are always working. but we have the video, and we can watch it. but it's really been a rough they've won just twice this season, and jameis winston had the day off but he will tell us it doesn't mean football was not on his mind. y22pvy yy6y in florida, people are working har

all about back >>laura: b supply doesn'n in tw plesss live in clearwater. it tust aitrain, she's not s iso and look let theage don't have going to be transported to pinellas county schools and distributed to needmo. >>charley: you're just going to ease into did the morning show h you and walter?>>wann igrt. yeah. rul? laur anything? i have to do this >>laur she did bring the sunshine. >>charley: jennifer epstein shows up andhere's aginskies. there's a clearing in the skies. >>jennifer: did i that. chley: suddenly it's a little brighter. >>jennifer: i'm a little shook dark out. i couldn't see. >>charley: you didn't put your ? >>jennifer: no. but at least three cars did. don't do that. >>charley: anything else you need to know? we have notebook paper, notebooks. we're going to talk about our favorite school supplies coming up. now that jens seriously come ou lceer. meet jenfeep ox thanks. all right. really serious and sad story coming up at 7:00. water supplied s wlide theend.a: arecourt's plan to p visitors from alligators. we're following thatnd,haheard. no

we have rain across coachman into clearwater. this will be headed across clearwater beach and possibly just to the south of hmo island over the next half hour. as we take a wider look you can see showers and storms started bubbling up a couple hours ago mainly inland, the coastline. the typical east to west pattern we have seen so much of the last couple days, helps keep us dry for the 1st half of the day. now showers and storms will linger the next couple hours. even as we get past sunset we may see a few isolated showers and storms continuing through the night. the temperatures falling closer to 80 degrees. showers and storms helping coolest down. >>reporter: if you are thinking of cooling down this weekend i taking a dip in the pool i will >>> if you like eating at hruby tuesday do so soon because 95 restaurants will be closed next month. the company not saying which ones are closing. competition and low sales blamed for the closures. >>> breaking developments in the race for the white house, mike pence is out doing serious da

there's clearwater through st. pete and some lightning embedded there as well. so not just all rain, we continue to see lightning throughout the morning hours. look at this, this is not from yesterday. this is just this morning, 2 to 5 inches of rainfall fell in a very short amount of time and that is why we had the flooding issues. widening out the shot you can see this blob of white, that is the depression, we're well out good 400 to 500 miles away and we're getting that plumb of tropical moisture that continues to move from south to north. again a multiday rain event and tomorrow getting into the winds. right now 35 miles an hour. still the forecast from the national hurricane center and the models 55 to 65 mile-per- hour winds. track shifted a little further west and that is even better news for us that, means the coastal flooding we're expecting for tomorrow 1 to 2 feet will be less so as it continues to trend in that direction. yes, we have a hurricane watch for the coast. i don't think we're going to get hurricane conditions. citrus, hernando into pasco c

that vehicle was stolen from clearwater last week. if you have any information, call the pinellas county sheriff's office. >>> have you heard about this some scary moments in the sky jonathan hunt reports, two dozen people suffering injuries when their plane encountered turbulence. tell me what happened. it was like >> very good a welcome return to a solid ground for passengers traveling on a diverted plane. jet blue flight 429 flying from boston to sacramento thursday night when severe turbulence force it had to land in rapid city, south dakota. those on board describe a frightening experience. >>> we go right into this huge cloud, boom. like flew up and in air the whole plane shuttered storage thing up on top opened up completely a flew out a bunch of people got hurt. bunch of stuff fell down all over them. hurt people's shoulders. 22 passenger and two crew members suffered injuries during the incident. they were taken to a local the plane landed safely and all >> flight 429 passengers finally making it to california early friday. >

another five miles west of clearwater beach. most of the raincompanies to will not make it to the coast. cannot rule out all, and high pressure is to the west. it is actually close to our area. it is kind of neck and neck at that ridge access if you will. interior storms. rain chances below average today. 20% at the beach. 30% here in tampa. then you happen to polk coun highlands, desoto. a 40% storm chance which is typical this time of year. most of us below average in the rain department. here is lunchtime. the sea breeze gets going away from the beach, and here comes the storms and most of them are out of the viewing area by 6, 7:00. through the overnight is quiet. not showing much rain on su sunday, but rain chances are not nonexistent. lower in the afternoon 20% and at least can get out and about. fiona, no worries. a depression swallowed by dry air and wind shear. invest 99 l embedded and 50% chance in will develop as it moves west toward the islands, in that environment, we will have to watch things a little more closely.

clearwater has the same reading as does hudson and sarasota and siesta key. winter haven is warmer at 80. avon park 74. and looking for a high in tampa of 92. as we push the temperatures upward we will go from the muggy morning to increased humidity and steamy conditions and then rain around by later this afternoon. i will let you know the timing of the raindrops coming up. >>> the end of an era in brazil. michael phelps tops his amazing career. >> the most honored olympian went out on top powering the us team to a says will be his last. jim ryan has report.>> reporter: the end of an era, michael phelps tops his story with a gold medal. the greatest swimmer of all time helping the relay team surge to a win. this is his 23rd all-time gold medal. the most decorated olympian ever and he says goodbye to the 4 x 100 medley relay. simone manual was chasing another goal manual -- medal in the freestyle, splashing --. she came in second for the silver. she already won gold in the 100 m freestyle. in the men's 1500 m freestyle, connor jaeger swam to his first olympic

beach, right on up to seminole around clearwater. look over to the east side of the viewing area, from polk county, highlands, also beginning to see some of these storms flare-up. but the heaviest weather right across the metro right now. it's all moving west. by 5:15, 5:30, it will be out of here. new storms will develop through the evening hours. i think by about 10:00, they will be long gone. by tomorrow morning, you will be waking up to another warm and dry day across the area. lingering until 8:00, 9:00 across the entire area. by 11:00, the rains have ended. by tomorrow morning, we're sunny. we will talk about the rest of the forecast and what will likely be a tropical storm very soon in the atlantic coming up. >> thank you, denis. >>> a lot of weather updates coming your way. >>> whitening your teeth with charcoal? it is happening. the warnings that you need to know before you see a video and think it's a good idea. >> we talked to a dentist today. there's a popularity. a teeth whitening idea that involves smearing a charcoal m

then jen and charley are over at the long center in clearwater. i talked to this lady and i realize how important what we're doing today really is, guys. >>charley: absolutely. 1501 north belcher road. we just had a car pull up. >>jennifer: we had a donation. >>charley: come on. let's do this. >>russell: rain or shane. thank you for coming. good you talk to him. i'll get the supplies. >>jennifer: what's your name? >> brian. >>charley: brian, are they in the back seat? >>jennifer: take things that aren't yours, charley. i know it's raining and not a great day to come out here but why did you feel the need to come out? >> i definitely want to help the kids or help teachers that are, you know, need these supplies because i know a lot of the time they say they have to pay you for it out of their own pockets. >>jennifer: it's wonderful for you to come. belcher. >> absolutely. my mother watches you all the time. >>charley: tell your mom i said hi. thank you, thank you for coming up. so thankful. >>jennifer: drive safe. thank you so much. rain or shine,

tampa bay's first medical marijuana dispensory is open in clearwater. >>> the first dispensary in clearwater. and it offers high and low thc cannabis and who are on the compassionate use registry. and one veteran suffers from tremors. he's been taking them for a week now. he said he is seeing an improvement. i could not eat soup i had a hard time eating and doing small things. and do things with my hands. but now i'm able to do a little bit more. >> and planning to open three more in the bay area in st. pete and cal and bradenton. >> and dr. jo was at the opening and take as closer look at the protects -- products and what th >> this is the dispensary but behind the showcases, you will not see plants, brownies or other items, you will find an assortment of tested and dosed products. >> you have capsules. and traditional and buy at a pharmacy. we have a this is more of a >> and although they have only two open stores you will not have to drive to either of them to get your prescription filleee mail it. and we it is important to get to know the patients. getting a bag of the marijuana does not

we are looking for a pedestrian accident along palmetto street in clearwater. you can see palmetto there east- to-west in the shot. that is betty lane you see, myrtle below us. we can't seem to find us so maybe no injuries, that would be good news and moved out of the way. gulf-to-bay picking up eastbound toward the courtney campbell and on toward tampa. and u.s. 19 as we cross that, it's getting busy too. that is normal this morning but no accidents or delays. here's ivan with the forecast. >>> looking great this morning. a lot of sunshine. in fact not just this morning but most of the day. we'll set up for another hot day today. difference is we'll get thunderstorms going, a few isolated yet but today we'll get back to 40% coverage. typical for this time of year. satellite and radar, this is 12- hour loop, not much yesterday. we had the thunderstorms south of fort myers and into portions of south florida but for us, shore. those are moving away from us, but that nearly flow will set us up for today with more moisture and the steering flow with the northeast f

clearwater. good day viewers really showing up this morning. they've donated all this stuff out here we're out here until 10 o'clock. rain or shine, only shine is off my forehead if i bring back the visor. shine of jennifer epstein's personality. million rose but our viewers stepping up. so a so lovely to see them. stick around everybody. foster farms presents appetites. even a small one can throw you off your game. they can happen anywhere. and they only get bigger as time goes on. serve foster farms corn dogs, a delicious plump frank wrapped in a honey crunchy coating. a corn dog with 7 grams of protein makes a big appetite go away. the u-s women's gymnastics team came out of the gate strong. 's women gymnastic came came out gate strong in qualifying round of competition they were really just competing against them several simone biles scored 15 out of 16.1 on uneven parallel bars. and a 15.66 out of 16.7 on balance beam sticks landing too by the way. i love her. she finished qualifying in the all around. >> first in >>> unbelievable landing.

clearwater 88 with rain. but as wesaid, at least the morning was dry. and i think our rngsill remain dry. tomorrow, friday, right through the ekend. this pattern is more of our so the storms start anterior. and for that matter they will again this evening. a little bit of a slow drift anterior. today is a transitional day from the mess we had the last five days to status quo forecast period through the weekend. you notice until midnight tonight, things try to push back towards the beach. i think while the heaviest rains will be polk county, deso shower. when you wake up tomorrow morning, bright and early, skies will be clear and it will be dry and it will be warm, with temperatures near 80 degrees much then you extend the forecast through 4:00, quiet. nothing develops until then. so you're good to go until 3:00 or 4:00, and then the storms begin to build and get stronger and come back to the beach. that is textbook florida are gointosee sdayfriday, saturday and right into the weekend. worry about for at least the first half of the day. temperatures righ

there is a look from downtown tampa it's 81 degrees in clearwater and st. pete. 82 in bradenton. 76degrees in apollo beach. forecast temperatures up around 90 degrees at lunchtime. and 93 for a forecast high temperature this afternoon. the record is 95 degrees set back in 1989. rapid refresh model showing a widely scattered coverage showers, maybe thunderstorms through the second part of the day. unlike the last few days with the westerly wind that pushes during the second part of the day, we're in more of a northeasterly flow. still the chance for scattered showers and thunderstorms. back up to 40% for the rest of the work week. we will check out the high temperatures over the next five days. we classify that as above average but you know that when you step outside. >> yeah, that's florida. >> so it goes. >> i love it here so no complaints. >> me too. >>> all right, let's look at traffic in our city right now in the tampa bay area, pinellas county, looking good. no delays in st. pete on the interstate. free and clear of slow downs. and let's look at plant

clearwater beach apollo beach 82. arcadia sarasota 82. clouds continue down at the south with the tropical depression farther to about 200 miles west of key west. helping to control the flow easterly flow is in place and will be for the next several days as that flow will continue to drag across the state. lots of atmospheric moisture so showers can certainly start. look at the hurricane hunter aircraft flying out of the tampa bay area. 40 mile per hour gusts now. most of the thunderstorm activity closer to cuba really. with air space there. 35 mile per hour winds as you can see 200 miles west of key west. which is right there and directly to the west the center exposed as we showed you at the top of the newscast. dry air here too colored in red. that and wind sheer coming off an upper low to the north. pushing the thunderstorm activity to the south of the center itself. the all important track. this will likely change but fairly consistent roy computer model that is we showed you. really keep an eye on this whole area here. this cone of

at clearwater beach, you can see picked up half an inch of rain in a short amount of time. 79 degrees right now. we have a north wind at 2 miles an hour. basically overcast. much, much cooler. there came the storm as it rolled across the area. looked really nice there for a while. we added that up cloudy skies. you can see the celsius temperatures there. 90 degrees, without the showers and storms in the forecast. temperatures will be hot much like here. it is winter down there as it is summer up here in the northern hemisphere. we have another space station flyover. if you are lucky enough to find some clear patches, visible for reaching a max height of 17 degrees. 8:42 for four minutes in the northern sky if they are clear enough. radar continues to show a clump of thunderstorms. quite a bit of lightning. a thousand strikes or more in a short amount of time. that is mostly clearing the area. leftover light rain all the way down to reddington. and polk pretty quiet. a few thunderstorms south of frost proof. folks in fort meade may catch some of this eventually. and kissimmee, there's

the city of clearwater officials are warning beach visitors about sting rays. lifeguards raised the purple flag to let people know about the dangerous marine life. more than a dozen people were already stung this week. shuffling your weekend around the clock to get the upper hand on fires in california. an update on the progress just ahead. the good news residents are getting this morning. >> a terrifying skydiving accident caught on camera. what happened when the parachute of this diver did not open. more of this amazing video next. >> it's 6:09 and you're watching news channel 8 today. ? ? ? is with the treat you make together. you brush your teeth diligently...two times a day, right? but 80% of your mouth's bacteria arentt even on teeth. eughty purschunt?! colgate total's different. it fights bacteria on teeth, tongue, cheeks and gums. protecting 100% of your mouth's surfaces. >>> across america this morning, firefighters are finally getting the upper hand on the so-called blue cut fire. flames tore through 50 miles in just a matter of days. 80,000 people ha