Special Marine Warning Issued for Gulf Waters Near Key West
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 6, 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 FL issued a Special Marine Warning for Gulf of America waters and Hawk Channel until 9:00 PM EDT due to strong thunderstorms with wind gusts 34 knots or greater.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Gulf of America near Florida Keys
- Issued
- August 6, 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 Gulf of America near Florida Keys.
Alert Details
Special Marine Warning issued by NWS Key West FL. Effective from 2026-08-05T20:02:00-04:00 until 2026-08-05T21:00:00-04:00. Severity: Severe. Urgency: Immediate. Certainty: Likely.
Affected Areas
Gulf of America from East Cape Sable to Chokoloskee 20 to 60 NM out and beyond 5 fathoms; Gulf of America from West End of Seven Mile Bridge to Halfmoon Shoal out to 5 Fathoms; Hawk Channel from west end of Seven Mile Bridge to Halfmoon Shoal out to the reef. Locations include Annette Key, Howe Key, Raccoon Key, Snipe Point, Cottrell Key, Smith Shoal Light, and Water Keys.
What You Should Do
Boaters should seek safe harbor as quickly and as safely as possible. When downpours reduce visibility, slow down. Intense and continuous lightning is occurring with this storm. Stay low, or go below. Lower VHF antenna, outriggers, fishing rods, and umbrellas.
Expected Conditions
At 800 PM EDT, a cluster of strong thunderstorms was located between Stock Island and Big Pine Key, moving west at 15 knots. Hazard: Wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Impact: Expect wind gusts in excess of 34 knots, suddenly higher waves, frequent lightning, and heavy downpours.
Timeline
Alert effective August 5, 2026 at 8:02 PM EDT and ends August 5, 2026 at 9:00 PM EDT.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
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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 (1,277 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 6, 2026.
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