ORLANDO, Fla. – A wetter and stormier pattern returns to Central Florida as an area of low pressure develops near Florida’s west coast, bringing increasing rain chances through the weekend while its tropical future remains uncertain.
THURSDAY
The forecast looks fairly typical for mid-July on Thursday. Temperatures will climb into the low to mid 90s before scattered to numerous afternoon and evening thunderstorms develop across the area.
The best chance for storms will come after 2 p.m. as sea breeze boundaries collide over the eastern half of the peninsula, including portions of the I-4 corridor and areas closer to the coast. The coverage returns to normal between 40-50%.
Some storms could become strong, producing frequent lightning, wind gusts between 45 and 55 mph, and torrential downpours.
Outside of storms, summer heat remains firmly in place with highs in the low to mid 90s and feels-like temperatures climbing into the 100 to 107 degree range.
WATCHING THE TROPICS FOR THE WEEKEND
The National Hurricane Center is monitoring an area near Florida and the northeastern Gulf Coast for possible tropical development over the coming days. Current forecasts keep a low chance for development over the next several days.
Regardless of the development, which is not expected to be much, the bigger impact is going to be the rainfall into the weekend.
While the weekend does NOT look to be a washout, it will become even more active each afternoon from Friday through Sunday.
Rain chances will run higher than they have over the past week, with many areas seeing at least one round of rain each day, with a few dry hours mixed in.
Temperatures will remain seasonably hot, with highs in the low to mid 90s and heat index values topping 100 degrees each afternoon.
The News 6 weather team will continue to monitor trends closely and provide updates as we head into the weekend.