Tropical disturbance in Gulf expected to bring heavy rain to Florida this weekend
ORLANDO, Fla. - A disturbance in the northeastern Gulf could bring heavy rain to parts of Florida this weekend.
The system has a 20% chance of tropical development over the next seven days, according to the National Hurricane Center.
How much rain could fall in Central Florida?
As this area of low pressure continues to develop offshore in the Gulf, the highest rain chances and more consistent rain will likely fall west of the Orlando Metro on Saturday.
Timeline:
Outer rain bands look to work through Central Florida, mainly during the afternoon. Depending on exactly how close the center of circulation is to the Gulf Coast on Saturday morning, it could lead to a few showers and storms early in the day, but we'll then see hit or miss showers and storms developing during the afternoon.
These will linger into the early evening. The best chances for Central Florida start to increase past 1-2 p.m., and will continue through the remainder of the day.
The low will likely be just to our northwest on Sunday, leading to another day of hit-or-miss showers and storms.
It won't be a washout, but as instability builds, we'll see scattered showers and storms developing during the afternoon.
Once again, these will likely get going closer to lunchtime and will continue into the evening. From 1 p.m. into mid-afternoon is when we'll see the coverage start to increase as the instability in the atmosphere builds.
Expected rainfall totals:
Rainfall totals closer to I-75 could top out beyond 2-3 inches. Isolated amounts could rise beyond 6 inches.
Rainfall totals near I-4 will likely be closer to a 1-1.5 inches with some spots potentially a little higher farther west. (Isolated amounts higher than this are still possible.)
Rainfall totals near Orlando will likely rise to around an inch or so.
Amounts will generally lighter the closer you get to our East Coast Beaches, topping out between 0.5-1".
The Source: The information in this story was provided by the National Hurricane Center and the FOX 35 Storm Team.