Happy Sunday, South Florida!

The start of the weekend was a decent one but typical for South Florida. While we started our Saturday off under mostly cloudy skies and with a few showers (especially down in the keys), the rest of the day turned out quite decent for us with plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures in the lower 90s.  And this morning we started off with a few downpours in the area.

Today will be a lot like what we saw yesterday except that we could see a few more downpours from time to time.  With the added humidity in place, afternoon temperatures will FEEL LIKE like the 100s across ALL of South Florida.  Good news is that we also will notice the breeze picking up just a little more than it did yesterday. So gusty winds will be possible, especially increasing as we head into this evening and tonight. However the bulk of the rain we’re expecting today will probably be during the morning hours before shifting out towards interior sections and out towards the gulf coast.  Then by late tonight South Florida should be going to see deteriorating conditions as far as rain is concerned….especially our southern locations across the Keys. We can expect increasing breezy downpours and gusty winds late tonight into the overnight hours. And all of this is due to tropical storm Laura slowly inching closer to our general area.

The good news is that for South Florida tropical storm Laura is forecast to track to the south of us, remaining over Cuba as it moves closer to the Gulf of Mexico. However South Florida will still feel some indirect impacts from Laura, especially down in the keys.  Gusty winds and squally weather expected tonight and especially throughout the day on Monday.  Best chances will be down across the more-exposed Florida Keys and this will be possible through Tuesday.  This is why the Florida Keys and all South Florida near-shore and offshore waters remain under a tropical storm watch until further notice.

And with a strong onshore flow, the risk of rip currents along our East Coast beaches will continue through much of the upcoming work week.  In addition to that, South Florida low-lying areas could see some coastal flooding especially during times of high tide. This is especially true down in the keys where a coastal flood watch remains in effect through at least late Monday due to tidal anomalies running 3/4 of a foot above normal.  This could result in an additional 1-2 feet of saltwater flooding across some of the more exposed low lying areas in the Florida Keys.

The latest advisory on Laura keeps it as a tropical storm as it moves across Cuba later today.  Rainfall totals of 3-6″ will be possible across Cuba while 1-3″ of rain are to be expected across the Southeastern Bahamas.  Latest forecast track does have Laura quickly strengthening into a hurricane once it moves into the Gulf of Mexico.  And due to the warm waters of the Gulf, Laura could strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall somewhere along the Northern Gulf Coast….(just 36 hours after Marco is forecast to make landfall nearby).

So due to a nearby tropical system in our area, we could see breezy downpours starting late tonight, especially Monday and possibly linger into Tuesday morning. Monday looks to be potentially the wettest day for in South Florida with breezy tropical downpours moving through our area at any given time. Tuesday will be more of a transitional day back to a more typical summertime weather pattern for us but we could still see some tropical downpours from time to time. After that things should begin to go back to normal for us here in South Florida as we go into the middle and end of the workweek. Now that’s not to say we won’t see any showers and thunderstorms. After all, this is South Florida and we are in the middle of summer!

Have a great day & remember to keep hydrated today!

Erika Delgado

Meteorologist

WSVN Channel 7 News

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