Florida News That Impacts You – September 18th, 2023

Florida News That Impacts You – September 18th, 2023 

Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.  

• We begin the week with three disturbances in the Atlantic, including one just off of Florida’s east coast. Tropical storm Nigel is expected to develop into a hurricane, however it’s not a threat to populated areas as it’s set to head north through the mid-Atlantic. There’s another disturbance off the coast of Africa that’s expected to develop into a tropical storm or hurricane over the coming week. The disturbance off of our coast is currently being given a 30% chance of development over the next week.  
• Mirroring the national trend last month, the West Palm Beach metro’s unemployment rate rose from 3.1% to 3.3% in August. The increase happened despite an increase of 4,900 jobs during the month. Florida’s unemployment rate continued to outperform the national average, remaining flat at 2.7%. 
• The Health Care District of Palm Beach County has announced that the county will soon have two new Trauma Hawk helicopters that will be used in medical emergencies going forward. The two new helicopters will replace the District’s existing air ambulances in the coming weeks. The Trauma Hawks feature top speeds of 178 miles per hour and include a roll-on stretcher system to ease patient loading and unloading. 
• Florida’s colleges are once again among the top performers nationally in the 2024 US News and World Report rankings. The just released annual update has the University of Florida ranked 28th among all universities, Florida State is 55th, the University of Miami is 67th and the University of South Florida is 89th.  
• Gas prices continued to rise through the weekend. Statewide the average price for regular unleaded is $3.69 per gallon – 5 cents higher than Friday and 9 cents higher than a week ago. In Palm Beach County the average price is $3.84 per gallon, which is the highest price in the state.