Water, water everywhere
South Florida will get soaked, but Hurricane Harvey isn’t to blame
A disturbance chock full of moisture began dropping rainfall in earnest early Thursday and is forecast to continue doing so for at least a couple of days.
Meanwhile, Harvey became a hurricane Thursday afternoon and is gaining strength as it approaches coastal Texas. It will have no bearing on South Florida’s weather.
Harvey — a tropical storm that dissipated and then morphed into a depression before intensifying into a Category 1 hurricane — is expected to gain strength, possibly becoming a Category 3 hurricane, before making landfall late Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of 8 p.m. Thursday, Harvey had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and was moving northwest at 10 mph. It was about 305 miles from Corpus Christi, Texas.
A flood watch issued Thursday morning for all of South Florida is expected to last until 8 a.m. Saturday. That doesn’t mean it will rain the whole time, but forecasters say the region can expect at least 2 and perhaps up to 5 inches of rain during that time.
The trough of low pressure bringing all the rain is sitting across southern and central Florida and is expected to drift north during the next day or two. It has a 40 percent chance of developing over the next five days. “Regardless of development, very heavy rain and flooding is possible over portions of the Florida peninsula during the next few days,” forecaster Richard Pasch said.
Thursday’s downpours brought 2.16 inches of rain to Fort Lauderdale, .83 inches to West Palm Beach and .58 inches to Miami, according to the National Weather Service.