Traffic is now flowing in and out of the Florida Keys after a brush fire led officials to briefly close U.S. 1, snarling traffic for hours for those trying to enter or leave the island chain.

Looking to waste away with a cheeseburger in paradise.

New York had its hot dog eating contest to celebrate Independence Day.

The NAACP over the weekend issued a travel advisory for Florida, joining two other civil rights groups in warning potential tourists that recent laws championed by Gov_ Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”.

It took seven people to help get the fish off of the boat.

A Canadian woman and a pediatric cardiologist from Georgia are winners in Key West’s annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest.

At least 500 migrants have arrived in the Florida Keys over the last several days in what the local sheriff’s office describes as a “crisis.”.

The Southernmost Point marker in Key West, Florida, a landmark delineating the continental United States’ southernmost spot of land, became a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II when city workers installed a British flag and royal purple banner at the much-photographed site beside the Atlantic Ocean.

Haitian migrants are reaching Florida’s shores in repeated suspected human smuggling operations, outpacing last year’s migration waves.

Federal officials say a wooden boat carrying hundreds of Haitian migrants in a suspected human smuggling operation ran aground just off Key Largo, Florida.

The Florida Panhandle is the short answer as to where FRED will make an eventual landfall (although we should count the Florida Keys, too, which FRED will crossover tomorrow, so technically a landfall over that island chain). Here’s the official 2pm forecast from the National Hurricane Center:

Forecasters say tropical depression Fred is slowly strengthening and could regain tropical storm status on Saturday.

Tropical depression Fred is heading for a drenching of Cuba and the Bahamas on a forecast track that would carry it toward South Florida as a tropical storm by Saturday.

Tropical Storm Elsa is sweeping over western Cuba with strong rain and winds, and forecasters say it will move on to the Florida Keys on Tuesday and Florida’s central Gulf coast by Wednesday.

HOUSTON – The storm is expected to weaken just slightly down to a strong tropical storm before making landfall somewhere between Cedar Key and Clearwater, Florida by this evening. It will bring heavy rain, wind and up to a 2-3 foot storm surge during high tide across central and NW Florida coastline. Eta is approaching the central Florida coastline this eveningEta will move across Florida tonight and tomorrowWe might be nearing the end of hurricane season but the tropics are still very busy! Tropical Storm Theta is churning in the north Atlantic heading towards Spain and Portugal and we will likely be looking at “Iota” over the next few days tracking in the Caribbean towards Central America. Busy TropicsTHETA marks the 29th named storm of the 2020 season breaking the record for the most named tropical systems in a hurricane season.

A couple walks along the beach during a downpour, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, on Miami Beach, Florida's famed South Beach. A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta cut across Cuba on Sunday, and forecasters say it's likely to be a hurricane before hitting the Florida Keys Sunday night or Monday. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta cut across Cuba on Sunday, and forecasters say it's likely to be a hurricane before hitting the Florida Keys Sunday night or Monday. Eta made landfall in the Florida Keys and posed a serious threat across South Florida, which was already drenched from more than 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain last month. “Never seen this, never, not this deep,” said Anthony Lyas, who has lived in his now-waterlogged Fort Lauderdale neighborhood since 1996. Eta was not done yet with Cuba, just 90 miles (140 kilometers) south of Florida, where the storm continued to swell rivers and flood coastal zones. ___Associated Press writers Cody Jackson in Fort Lauderdale, Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, and Haleluya Hadero in Atlanta contributed to this report.

A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta cut across Cuba on Sunday, and forecasters say it's likely to be a hurricane before hitting the Florida Keys Sunday night or Monday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami declared hurricane and storm surge warnings for the Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas, including Florida Bay. Several shelters also opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas. On Sunday night, authorities in Lauderhill, Florida, responded to a report of a car that had driven into a canal. South Florida started emptying ports and a small number of shelters opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low-lying areas.

Members of search and recovery teams search for survivors in the debris of a massive, rain-fueled landslide in the village of Queja, in Guatemala, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Eta. The storm was expected to hit Cuba by early Sunday, and approach the Florida Keys and south Florida late Sunday or Monday. Tropical storm warnings were issued for central Cuba, southern Florida and the Florida Keys. South Florida started emptying ports and a small number of shelters opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas. The storms’ threat comes as many streets across South Florida have been inundated by heavy rains and unusual King Tides.

Location 85 miles SE of Wilmington North Carolina Wind 45 mph Heading ENE at 21 mph Pressure 29.65 Coordinates 76.8W, 33.3NDiscussionAt 400 AM EST (0900 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Eta was located near latitude 33.3 North, longitude 76.8 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the east-northeast near 21 mph (33 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue with an increase in forward speed through Saturday. On the forecast track, Eta is expected to gradually pull away from the southeast U.S. Coast today. Eta could intensify a little as an non-tropical cyclone during the next day or so before it becomes absorbed by a larger non-tropical cyclone on Saturday or Saturday night. Tropics Models at 8:10 Friday Morning, November 13thLand HazardsSURF: Swells generated by Eta will affect portions of the southeastern United States coast today.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Sometime next year, genetically modified mosquitoes will be released in the Florida Keys in an effort to combat persistent insect-borne diseases such as Dengue fever and the Zika virus. The plan approved this week by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District calls for a pilot project in 2021 involving the striped-legged Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is not native to Florida. At a meeting Tuesday of the Florida Keys mosquito control board, several people questioned the wisdom of the project. You have no idea what that will do, Barry Wray, director of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition, told the board. Whether or not the modified mosquitoes can efficiently crash the population of these mosquitoes in Florida remains an open question, some experts say.

KEY WEST, Fla. (WFOR) After nearly 30 years, DNA technology has helped crack a cold case in the Florida Keys. That case became known as the Valentine Jane Doe Homicide and made headline news. Sheriffs Office Major Crimes Unit Detective Vince Weiner and the FDLE partnered using new advanced DNA technology, which assisted in identifying Kirkum and Bradley. Bradleys DNA was obtained from the 1991 crime scene in the Florida Keys. This case is a testament and shining example of this agencys commitment to solving crime, no matter how old the case and no matter the challenges.