FirstAlerts
Severe Weather

Heat Advisory Covers Pinellas, Polk, Hardee and 20 More Florida Zones Until 7 P.M.

The National Weather Service office in Ruskin lists 23 zones across southwest and west central Florida — Tampa, St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, Sarasota and Winter Haven among the cities named — with heat index values up to 112 expected on Aug. 19.

4 reports on this incident · first at Aug 19, 2026, 12:39 a.m. ET

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 19, 2026, 1:24 a.m. ET
The has a in effect for zones across portions of southwest and west central Florida, among them Pinellas, Polk and Hardee counties, with The details come from the product issued by that office and carried in the National Weather Service's raw text product feed at tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/raw/. That record shows the product was issued at 12:32 a.m. EDT on Aug. 19, 2026, and classifies the alert level as an . The takes effect at 11:00 a.m. EDT and expires at 7:00 p.m. EDT the same day — "From 11 AM this morning to 7 PM EDT this evening," in the bulletin's own wording. ## Where it applies The zones named in the record are Pinellas, Polk, Hardee, Highlands and DeSoto, plus the coastal and inland sections of Levy, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee. Cities listed within the area are Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Brandon, Westchase, Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Englewood, Anna Maria Island, Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Captiva, Lehigh Acres, Winter Haven, Bowling Green, Wauchula, Arcadia, Inverness, Homosassa, Hernando Beach, Chiefland and Cedar Key. ## What the office says to expect The states that The precautions printed in the same record: The figures, times and place names above are drawn from the National Weather Service's own issued product for Aug. 19, 2026 — the official weather record from the Ruskin forecast office — as posted in NOAA's raw product archive.

Earlier reports

  1. Aug 19, 2026, 12:54 a.m. ET

    Heat Advisory Covers Pinellas, Polk and Hardee Counties Until 7 p.m. Wednesday

    A Heat Advisory is in force for Pinellas, Polk and Hardee counties and 20 other zones in southwest and west central Florida, according to the public alert record issued by the National Weather Service Tampa Bay Ruskin FL.

    The record shows the advisory was issued at 12:32 a.m. EDT on Aug. 19, 2026, took effect at 11 a.m. EDT the same morning, and expires at 7 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. Readers reaching this story after that time should treat the advisory as no longer in effect unless the weather service has issued a new alert.

    The record states that heat index values up to 112 are expected. It lists 23 zones: Pinellas, Polk, Hardee, Highlands and DeSoto, along with the coastal and inland portions of Levy, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties. Cities named in the record include Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Englewood, Winter Haven, Lakewood Ranch, Brandon, Westchase, Parrish, Arcadia, Wauchula, Bowling Green, Lehigh Acres, Captiva, Anna Maria Island, Inverness, Homosassa, Hernando Beach, Chiefland and Cedar Key.

    On expected effects, the record says hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses.

    The precautions listed in the record are to drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

    The alert is classified in the record as an advisory, the lowest of the weather service's alert levels. The full text is carried in the National Weather Service raw product feed.

  2. Aug 19, 2026, 12:53 a.m. ET

    Weather Service Warns High Humidity and Temperatures May Cause Heat Illnesses

    Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses across portions of southwest and west central Florida on August 19, 2026, according to official advisory records from the National Weather Service Tampa Bay Ruskin FL.

    The heat advisory applies to 23 zones, including Pinellas, Polk, Hardee, Highlands, and DeSoto counties, as well as surrounding coastal and inland areas. Heat index values are expected to reach up to 112. The advisory starts at 11:00 AM EDT and expires at 7:00 PM EDT on August 19, 2026.

    Official advisory precautions recommend that residents drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

  3. Aug 19, 2026, 12:39 a.m. ETFirst report

    Pinellas, Polk and Hardee Under Heat Advisory as Florida Heat Index Reaches 112

    This is a developing event. According to official advisory records from the National Weather Service Tampa Bay Ruskin FL, a Heat Advisory was issued at 12:32 AM EDT on August 19, 2026, for Pinellas, Polk, Hardee and 20 other Florida zones. The advisory begins at 11:00 AM EDT and expires at 7:00 PM EDT on August 19, 2026.

    The advisory affects portions of southwest and west central Florida across 23 zones, including Pinellas, Polk, Hardee, Highlands, DeSoto, Coastal Levy, Coastal Citrus, Coastal Hernando, Coastal Pasco, Coastal Hillsborough, Coastal Manatee, Coastal Sarasota, Coastal Charlotte, Coastal Lee, Inland Levy, Inland Citrus, Inland Hernando, Inland Pasco, Inland Hillsborough, Inland Manatee, Inland Sarasota, Inland Charlotte, and Inland Lee. Cities located within the advisory area include Anna Maria Island, Parrish, Fort Myers, Westchase, Cape Coral, Winter Haven, Tampa, Lakewood Ranch, St. Petersburg, Captiva, Clearwater, Homosassa, Chiefland, Cedar Key, Sarasota, Lehigh Acres, Bowling Green, Englewood, Inverness, Arcadia, Bradenton, Hernando Beach, Wauchula, Brandon, and Venice.

    Official weather records state that heat index values up to 112 are expected. The National Weather Service noted that hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses. Advised precautions from the weather service include drinking plenty of fluids, staying in an air-conditioned room, staying out of the sun, and checking up on relatives and neighbors.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 119 Aug 2026, 05:24current

    First published.

  2. Version 119 Aug 2026, 04:53current

    First published.

  3. Version 119 Aug 2026, 04:39current

    First published.

  4. Version 119 Aug 2026, 04:54current

    First published.

How we work

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.