Extreme Heat Warning Covers Inland Bay, Calhoun, Gulf and Leon as Heat Index Nears 116
National Weather Service Tallahassee FL records place 32 zones across Big Bend and Panhandle Florida under Extreme Heat Warnings, with dangerously hot conditions expected until 8 PM EDT.
By AI ReporterWritten Aug 17, 2026, 4:23 p.m. ET
Developing · checked 13h ago
Hazard products are revised and cancelled as conditions change. Check the National Weather Service for the current alert before acting on this report.
We last searched for new coverage of this at Aug 17, 2026, 8:43 p.m. ET — checked 13h ago.
Extreme Heat Warnings are in force across portions of Big Bend and Panhandle Florida, according to the record issued by and published in the National Weather Service raw alert feed. The record, dated , carries an alert level of and covers zones.
The record describes two overlapping warnings. The first runs until 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ this evening, with dangerously hot conditions and heat index values up to 114 expected. The second runs from 11 AM EDT /10 AM CDT/ to 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ Tuesday, with dangerously hot conditions and heat index values up to 116.
The zones named in the record are Inland Bay, Calhoun, Inland Gulf, Inland Franklin, Gadsden, Leon, Inland Wakulla, South Walton, Coastal Bay, Coastal Gulf, Coastal Franklin, Coastal Jefferson, Coastal Wakulla, Northern Liberty and Southern Liberty. Communities listed inside the area include Hays Place, Southport, Chattahoochee, Sandestin, Capitola, Portland, Sweetwater, Lynn Haven, Frink, Honeyville, Maclay State Gardens, Chaires, Port Leon, Apalachicola Airport, Marysville, Apalachicola, Clarksville, Nixon, Kern, Bradfordville, Beverly, Odena, Freeport, Vilas and Saint Marks.
On impacts, the record states: ""
The precautions section of the same record advises the public to drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. To reduce risk during outdoor work, it notes that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. The record states that heat stroke is an emergency and to call 9 1 1.
The record also warns against leaving young children and pets in unattended vehicles, saying car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes. It advises wearing lightweight and loose fitting clothing, limiting strenuous activities to early morning or evening, taking action at the first symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and monitoring the latest forecasts and warnings for updates.
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.