The relentless heat wave this July continues into this weekend across South Florida as we mark the 19th consecutive day of Heat Advisories in effect for Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. These advisories will remain in place through Sunday evening for feels-like temperatures up to 109F, but it could be extended into portions of next week, too.
The Florida Keys are also under a Heat Advisory for today along for peak heat indicies of up to 112F.
The big story this weekend will indeed be the heat courtesy of a heat dome parked right over South Florida, which traps and generates lots of heat, while our wind flow veers out of the southwest. This wind direction is a classic setup for hot temperatures across the metro and could lead to record heat today and tomorrow.
This will drive high temperatures up and into the mid to upper 90s across most of South Florida Saturday through Monday. This heat will also be worsened thanks to Saharan dust filling our skies, allowing more sunshine. This dust will keep rain chances low throughout the weekend but it won’t be completely dry. Expect lots of sunshine Saturday morning, then the chance for an afternoon storm or two.
As the dust thickens some more Sunday and Monday, that will drop rain chances down to a 20-30% chance, so rain should not be a big worry for any outdoor plans you may have.
By the middle of next week, it will remain hot but with an ocean breeze returning, that will knock temperatures off by a few degrees with highs returning closer to normal into the low to mid 90s. The Saharan dust will also exit to our west, allowing for more moisture to return and therefore a better chance for seeing some showers and storms.
Rain chances will rise to a 40-50% chance by Thursday with a fairly typical summer weather pattern regaining control. This means we can expect a few morning showers then afternoon thunderstorms, primarily across our inland areas.
In the tropics, Tropical Storm Don remains a fish storm over the open waters of the North Atlantic and should become a post-tropical system by the end of this weekend.
There is also an area of low pressure over the central Atlantic that has a high chance of becoming the season’s next tropical depression as it travels west toward the Caribbean Sea over the next week.
