ORLANDO, Fla. – A weather system that already has caused at least six deaths in the Dominican Republic has been designated as Tropical Storm Earl.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday that Earl was threatening to bring heavy rains, flooding and high winds to Mexico, Belize and Honduras. All three of those countries issued Tropical Storm warnings for some areas, and a hurricane watch was issued for part of the Mexican coast.
On Sunday, Earl was still a weaker tropical wave but knocked down power lines and started a fire that killed six passengers on a bus filled with people returning from a beach excursion.
On Tuesday, the storm was centered about 350 miles east-southeast of Belize City in the Caribbean. It had top sustained winds of 60 mph and was speeding west at 16 mph.
Meanwhile, Central Florida will see a changing weather pattern starting Tuesday, bringing temperatures and rain coverage back to normal.
"Tropical moisture associated with (the now previous) tropical wave that is developing over the Caribbean Sea is streaming additional instability into our atmosphere," News 6 meteorologist Candace Campos said. "This added moisture will help fuel our sea breeze storms, bringing us a better chance of much-needed rain."
Rain coverage will remain between 40 to 50 percent in the Orlando area for the rest of the workweek.
"Day-to-day coverage will be highly dependent on atmospheric moisture as we head into the weekend," Campos said. "Expect a return to more seasonal levels of storms, given the uptick in moisture, especially compared to the dry spell most of Central Florida has been under for the last three weeks."
With a weak south-southeasterly wind flow, highs will remain within a few degrees of seasonal norms, in the mid- to low 90s.