ORLANDO, Fla. – The tropics are stirring again, and all eyes are on a developing system just off Florida’s east coast.
The News 6 Weather Team is closely monitoring Invest 93, an area of low pressure that’s slowly becoming more organized with a chance of becoming our next tropical depression.
The system, sitting just offshore of Florida’s Atlantic coast, has been showing signs of better structure on satellite imagery overnight.
While thunderstorm activity around the center remains disorganized for now, the latest wind data indicates that the low is gradually becoming better defined.
Where Is It Headed?
The low is expected to move west across Central Florida through Tuesday, eventually emerging over the northeastern Gulf by Wednesday.
Once over the Gulf, conditions become a bit more favorable for tropical development, so we could be looking at a tropical depression forming sometime between Wednesday and Friday.
As of Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center gives the system a 40% chance of development over the next two to seven days.
Impacts Regardless of Development
Whether this system becomes a named storm, it’s already bringing impacts to Florida.
For Central Florida, the system is delivering widespread tropical downpours, gusty winds and the risk for localized flooding. That’s why the News 6 Weather Team has declared Tuesday a Weather Alert Day.
Further west, as the system moves into the Gulf, areas along the north-central Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana could see heavy rainfall and localized flash flooding later this week.