For those of you who have lived in south Florida awhile, you know that our Rainy Season date used to vary. Sometimes the start date would be earlier than others, depending on conditions. In the past, we’ve even started the wet weather season as early as April! Then, the National Weather Service put an date to the season, going with May 15. If it weren’t for that designated date, I’d say we were in the season right now. The warmth and humidity is here, and it looks like the beginning of a period that brings a chance for rain on a daily basis.
On Sunday, areas of rain focused on Miami-Dade county, mainly. The combination of the daytime heat, the Atlantic sea breeze and (perhaps the most valid) a tail of a front that lifted up, all joined forces to bring heavy downpours and street flooding. The afternoon was especially wet with some spots (like North Miami) picking over over 2-inches of rain.
Looking ahead, Monday and Tuesday have the potential for some scattered rain showers. The most likely time to encounter a shower will be during the morning (for locations near the coast) and during the afternoon for places well inland. The main “rain trigger” will be the inland drifting sea breeze boundary. Later in the day, then, both the east and west coast boundaries will merge near the Everglades with some thunderstorms. The bottom line? Be prepared for occasional rounds of rain in the days (and weeks, and months) ahead. Yes, it’s time to make sure your trusty umbrella is in your car and ready to go. As the Rainy Season gets going, we’ll even need to get accustom to toting the umbrella with us!
So, as the work week begins, scattered “sea breeze generated” rains will remain in the forecast. After Wednesday, though, there will be something new to follow. There’s a distant cold front that will slowly sag into Florida later this week. It’s expected to reach central and south Florida in the Thursday and Friday time frame. Once it gets close, it will add to the instability and trigger MORE areas of rain with storms. We’ll need to be on watch for the potential of street flooding if rains rotate over the same areas. Hopefully the front will plug-along and possibly pick up speed. The latest forecast maps call for the front to eventually cross all of south Florida (possibly early Saturday). Still, remember that fronts are weak once they reach south Florida this time of the year (if they ever do make it this far south)! It wouldn’t be surprising to see the front stall out before crossing our region, in fact. Regardless, we’ll just look for the drying trend to begin, after the boundary either crosses or fades away. Hopefully, that means next weekend will be “better, not wetter”.
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