The extra heat from earlier in the week has taken a back seat to more typical temperatures. Instead of reaching 90-degrees, Miami came up shy of that mark for the first time in a week. While still being warm for the fall season, a canopy of clouds with stronger wind speeds helped curb some of the heat.
One factor that hasn’t changed in several days is the onshore wind component. On Tuesday, sudden wind gusts reached as high as 29 mph in Miami (and nearly as strong in Ft. Lauderdale and across Broward County). Additionally, a waterspout was able to spin up on Tuesday afternoon. The spout lasted less than 15 minutes and fortunately failed to touch any ground. According to reports, the waterspout only got as close as 3 miles from coastal areas including Ft. Lauderdale Beach and Port Everglades.
Looking ahead, a sliver of drier air is expected to work into southeast Florida from the Atlantic. That will reduce rain chances on Wednesday (limited to only a spotty chance) while suppressing most cloud cover, too. That will make for a fine day, overall, with seasonal temperatures for the middle of the week.
In the distant tropics, we need to keep an eye on the southwestern Caribbean. A broad area of low pressure has formed and it’s drifting northward. The disturbance won’t be able to strengthen anytime soon. In fact, the National Hurricane Center forecasts a near-zero chance through the end of the work week. By the weekend, however, the low may have some opportunity to develop (although only gradually). The harsh wind shear, which is interfering with its growth for now, will lift away. Some of the long range forecast models hint at the potential for a depression or storm, possibly forming over the western or northwestern Caribbean, next week. It’s too early to know whether this is a future worry for anyone other than Central America. Since it’s in an area known to spawn tropical systems in October, we need to monitor the area more closely heading into next week.
