‘Plenty of tropical moisture’ will hit South Florida over next few days, forecasters say

Michelle Marchante, Caroline Ghisolfi
·2 min read

A low-pressure system is bringing heavy rainfall to South Florida, causing frequent lightning, gusty winds, and possible small hail and flooding in urban and poor-drainage areas Monday evening and Tuesday, forecasters said.

The system will cause more widespread rain in the next few days, particularly in North and Central Florida with some areas such as Orlando and Tallahassee expecting to see up to an 80 percent chance of rain Tuesday morning.

Showers will lower temperatures across the area. However, highs will remain in the lower-to-mid 90s, according to the National Weather Service in Miami.

“It looks like there’s going to be plenty of tropical moisture to go around mostly across the interior coast in South Florida, Miami-Dade, coastal Broward and coastal Palm Beach,” a spokesperson for NWS Miami said Monday.

“Some development of this system is possible if the system moves over water in two or three days. Regardless of development, the low is forecast to produce locally heavy rainfall that could cause flash flooding across portions of the southeastern U.S. during the next couple of days,” the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 8 p.m.

Forecasters expect a 50 to 60 percent chance of rain every day this week across the area, with a slightly higher change in interior South Florida than in the Miami metro area, according to NWS Miami.

TROPICAL WAVE

Also on forecasters’ radar: a “strong” tropical wave that is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms several hundred miles east of the Windward Islands. Forecasters expect the wave will see some slight development sometime Monday “before environmental conditions become hostile for development on Tuesday.”

The wave has a 10 percent chance of formation in the next five days and is forecast to move through the Lesser Antilles on Tuesday, possibly bringing heavy rainfall and gusty winds to some of those islands.

TROPICAL STORM EDOUARD

Forecasters are also tracking Tropical Storm Edouard, which formed over the far North Atlantic late Sunday and is currently not a threat to land. Edouard became a post-tropical storm Monday evening and is moving quickly northeastward with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph with higher gusts and is about 200 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, off Canada.

It is expected to be absorbed into a larger frontal boundary on Tuesday.