Tropical wave eyes the Gulf of Mexico; Leslie churns up rip currents in Florida

Orlando to see low rain chances over weekend

ORLANDO, Fla. – It will be a nice weather weekend in Central Florida, but all eyes are on the tropics.

An area of low pressure near Honduras now has a 60 percent chance of tropical development over the next five days.

"Although strong winds in the upper levels are located just to the north of the system, the upper-level environment is expected to be conducive enough to allow for some minimal development," News 6 meteorologist Troy Bridges said.

A tropical depression could formulate this weekend or early next week over the northwestern Caribbean Sea or the southern Gulf of Mexico.

"This system will move slowly northwest, regardless of tropical cyclone formation," Bridges said. "This disturbance will continue to bring torrential rain primarily to portions of Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula during the next few days."

If the system becomes a tropical storm, it would get the name Michael.

"While most models take it to the western Gulf, the European model tries to take it into the northern Gulf by next weekend," Bridges said. "Again, that would be a week out. The system will still have a difficult time organizing, even once it moves into the Gulf. Stay tuned."

Tropical Storm Leslie

Leslie is back to a tropical storm as it spins in the open Atlantic.

As of Friday morning, Leslie had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was moving north at 12 mph, away from the United States.

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"We will see rip currents and a few more days of high seas as Leslie continues to churn," Bridges said. "Leslie may be more than 1,000 miles away from Florida, but we will have those issues through the weekend."

Orlando-area forecast

Dry air is working into the upper levels of the atmosphere in Florida, leading to low rain chances this weekend.

Orlando will see a high of 92 on Friday, with a 10 percent chance of rain.

Rain chances increase slightly to 20 percent on Saturday and 30 percent on Sunday, with highs near 90.

The average high for this time of year is 88 degrees.

[GET Troy Bridges' PINPOINT FORECAST IN THE VIDEO BELOW]

Watch News 6 for weather updates.


About the Authors:

Daniel started with WKMG-TV in 2000 and became the digital content manager in 2009. When he's not working on ClickOrlando.com, Daniel likes to head to the beach or find a sporting event nearby.

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