South Florida faces flood watch through Thursday: Up to 8 inches of rain will pair with king tides
The stormy weather that is expected to drench South Florida over the next few days began Tuesday night with thunderstorms dropping between 3 to 5 inches in parts of Broward County and cars stalling on flooded roads.
South Floridians will likely face some heavy downpours and flooding this week, with as much as 8 inches of rain falling across parts of the tri-county region.
The main rain event will begin Wednesday. A flood watch begins Wednesday morning and runs through Thursday morning. The warning stretches from St. Lucie County south to Homestead, and includes nearly all of the populated areas of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.
Between 3 and 5 inches of rain had fallen in central parts of the county as of Tuesday evening. The expected rainfall rate is between 1 and 3 inches in two hours, the warning said.
The parts of the county that saw the most rain Tuesday were near the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport where 4.5 inches of rain was recorded and in Pompano Beach where 3.6 inches was recorded, according to NWS Miami data.
A flash flood warning for central Broward County that was in effect Tuesday evening expired at 8 p.m., the National Weather Service Miami said.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Garrett Pingol said calls were beginning to come in Tuesday evening about disabled cars, though the city has not yet experienced any flash flooding. The fire department is currently in a “monitoring phase” for the upcoming bouts of rain.
“We’re monitoring and preparing for a long night if necessary,” he said.
Fort Lauderdale city officials said in a news release late Tuesday that a precautionary water advisory is in place for a part of the Intracoastal Waterway near Port Everglades after an “emergency discharge” of treated wastewater from the George T. Lohmeyer Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Intracoastal. People are advised against participating in any water-related activities in the area, and the advisory will be lifted after testing.
The areas impacted are:
North: Southeast 15th Street
South: Inlet Drive
West: Southeast 20th Street
East: Southeast 23rd Avenue
Alan Dodd, Fort Lauderdale’s director of Public Works, said in a statement through a city spokesperson that rainwater and groundwater were flowing into wastewater pipes, so more water was flowing to the plant.
“The City is aware of this issue and has invested million of dollars to reduce these flows that occur during heavy rainfall events and we plan on making additional investments to continue these efforts,” the statement said.
In Wilton Manors, which was included in the current flash flood warning, city officials suspended the Circuit shuttle service until Wednesday morning due to flooding, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The predicted flooding is tied to a forecast for major rainfall in the area. The weather service is calling for 4 to 6 inches of rain from Palm Beach south, with higher amounts that could reach 8 inches.
Their “worst-case” rainfall amount maps shows 8 to 10 inches falling just north of Fort Lauderdale, and 6 to 8 inches south of Fort Lauderdale.
NWS meteorologist Ana Torres-Vazquez said the worst-case scenario of 8 to 10 inches, which is less likely, is “not normal outside of tropical events, or outside of the wet season.”
The weather service in its flood warnings advises drivers to “turn around, don’t drown” on flooded roads.
“If floodwaters rise around your car, abandon the car and move to higher ground if you can do so safely,” the weather service’s flood safety information says. “You and the vehicle can be quickly swept away.”
Six inches of water can be enough to reach the bottom of most cars and cause drivers to lose control or cars to stall, according to the weather service.
The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday night that an area of low pressure is forecast to develop near South Florida in a day or so before moving northeast near the Bahamas and off the east coast of the U.S. later this week and the weekend. It is not expected to develop into a tropical cyclone, but it will bring gusty winds and heavy rainfall to parts of South Florida regardless, the latest advisory said.
As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center gave it a 10% chance of developing in the next seven days and a near 0% chance in the next two days.
The forecast chance of rain in Fort Lauderdale is expected to reach 60% about 7 a.m. Wednesday, and 90% by 1 p.m., then may stay between 90% and 100% through Wednesday night until 4 a.m. Thursday.
The rainfall chances for the Palm Beach County area skew a bit later. Chances of rain hit 60% by noon Wednesday, 90% by 4 p.m., and stay between 85% and 100% until 8 a.m. Thursday. The forecast calls for strong winds from 15 to 25 mph along the coast.
There is also a risk of coastal flooding due to king tides this week. Wednesday morning’s king tide will crest at at 9:21 a.m., based on measurements at the South Port Everglades tidal station.
“The flood watch was put out in advance because we’re in the new moon phase,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Will Redman. “There is potential for coastal flooding in general, and if we have rain on top of that it could worsen things.”
Earlier this month, the weather service called for a relatively wet winter in South Florida, due in part to the influence of El Niño, which causes the subtropical jet stream to shift to the south, carrying moisture from the Pacific, and picking up even more moisture over the Gulf of Mexico while steering storms across the southern U.S. to us.
