Special Marine Warning for Hawk Channel and Straits of Florida
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 3, 2026, 2 weeks ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Key West has issued a Special Marine Warning for waterspouts and strong winds until 8:30 PM EDT on August 3.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Hawk Channel and Straits of Florida
- Issued
- August 3, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Key West FL
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 2 weeks ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Hawk Channel and Straits of Florida.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service Key West FL. The alert is effective from August 3, 2026 at 7:32 PM EDT until August 3, 2026 at 8:30 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Hawk Channel from west end of Seven Mile Bridge to Halfmoon Shoal out to the reef and Straits of Florida from west end of Seven Mile Bridge to south of Halfmoon Shoal out 20 NM. Specific locations include Western Sambo, Vandenberg, Joe's Tug, Pelican Shoal, East Sambo, Eastern Dry Rocks, and Key West Sea Bouy.
What You Should Do
Boaters should seek safe harbor as quickly and as safely as possible. When downpours reduce visibility, slow down. Waterspouts can easily overturn boats and create locally hazardous seas. Seek safe harbor immediately.
Expected Conditions
At 7:30 PM EDT a waterspout was located over Joe's Tug and was nearly stationary. Hazards include waterspouts and wind gusts up to near 40 knots or greater. Expect wind gusts in excess of 34 knots, suddenly higher waves, frequent lightning, and heavy downpours.
Timeline
The alert is in effect from 7:32 PM EDT to 8:30 PM EDT on August 3, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,161 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 3, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.