Part of SWFL under tornado watch

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A risk for severe storms exists Sunday night across Southwest Florida, meteorologist Zach Maloch said.

A tornado watch is in effect for Collier, Glades and Hendry counties until 6 a.m. Charlotte, DeSoto, Highlands, Lee and Sarasota had been under the same watch, but it was discontinued for those areas.

A tornado warning was briefly in effect for rural east central Collier County. It lapsed at 1:55 a.m. Severe thunderstorm warnings were also briefly in effect for parts of Collier, Glades and Hendry counties earlier in the night.

Power was out for 282 customers near Michigan Avenue in Fort Myers before 11 p.m., according to a Florida Power & Light email. It was expected to come back on shortly after midnight, the company said.

A total of 388 customers were without power throughout Lee County as of 11:20 p.m., an FPL spokesman said. In Charlotte, power was out for 98. Only isolated outages were affecting FPL customers in Collier, Hendry and Glades counties.

Winds averaging between 43 and 52 prompted the closure of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay around 5:30 p.m, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The bridge reopened at about 10 p.m.

The brunt of the storms should be felt between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. The overnight low is expected to dip to 67, with a high of 73 on tap for Monday.

See more, including a live radar, on our WINK News Weather page.

Zach went live via Facebook to talk about the storm threat: