After emerging from last week’s torrential downpours and flooding, South Florida is seeing a return to a more normal summer pattern of scattered afternoon and evening showers accompanied by “feels-like” temps in the high 90s and 100s.
Despite a festering disturbance in the Atlantic charging toward Florida’s east coast, the impacts to South Florida are expected to be non-existent or very limited, said National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto during a webinar on Thursday.
The system’s trajectory is set to hit the state line connecting Florida and Georgia on Friday afternoon. Rizzuto called it an “extremely disorganized development” that could bring a “slight uptick in cloud cover and moisture” down to South Florida, but nothing more.
“Expect these little showers and potential isolated thunderstorms to continue through the weekend, but we aren’t outlooked for any severe weather,” he said, adding there are “no real big concerns with severe thunderstorms this weekend.”
From Thursday to Sunday, rain chances are hovering between 50% and 60% across South Florida with temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s.
The hottest day will be Saturday, when the heat index will rise to as much as 106 in parts of Palm Beach County, and remain in the 102-to-105 range in Broward and Miami-Dade counties from Friday to Sunday.
This is not enough to signal a heat advisory though, Rizzuto said. The criteria for one to be issued is that the heat index must be 105 or higher for at least two hours. An excessive heat warning is issued if the heat index hits 110 or higher for at least two hours.
“Expect a slightly warmer and possibly a slightly wetter period but nothing out of the ordinary as we head toward summer,” Rizzuto said.
