Special Marine Warning Issued for Florida Bay and Hawk Channel
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 28, 2026, 3 months 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.
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by NWS Key West FL for Florida Bay and surrounding areas due to a strong thunderstorm with wind gusts of 34 knots or greater, effective until 6:15 PM EDT on April 20, 2026.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Florida Bay and Straits of Florida
- Issued
- April 28, 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 3 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Florida Bay and Straits of Florida.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Key West FL. This alert is effective from 5:25 PM EDT on April 20, 2026, until 6:15 PM EDT on the same day.
Affected Areas
The warning affects Florida Bay including Barnes Sound, Blackwater Sound, and Buttonwood Sound; Hawk Channel from Ocean Reef to Craig Key out to the reef; and Straits of Florida from Ocean Reef to Craig Key out 20 NM.
What You Should Do
Boaters should seek safe harbor as quickly and as safely as possible. When downpours reduce visibility, slow down.
Expected Conditions
Expect wind gusts in excess of 34 knots, suddenly higher waves, frequent lightning, and heavy downpours.
Timeline
The alert is effective from 5:25 PM EDT on April 20, 2026, and ends at 6:15 PM EDT on April 20, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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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 (822 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 28, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.