South Florida rain won’t go away soon
Wet weather likely to hang around until at least early next week.
Bouts of daily showers and thunderstorms will plague South Florida through at least early next week as a torrent of saturated air remains locked in place.
With parts of Palm Beach County receiving more than 6 inches of rain into Thursday from this week’s downpours, the National Weather Service in Miami warned of the potential for flooded roadways in areas where showers linger or the ground is already saturated.
A moderate flood hazard is in effect from the Martin County line to the Florida Keys into this morning with the Weather Prediction Center forecasting another 4 inches of rain through Tuesday.
“I don’t have good news,” said Brett Rossio, a meteorologist with Accuweather. “There’s deep tropical moisture being pulled in and the pattern is kind of stagnant.”
An upper-level disturbance in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico is amplifying the stormy weather this week. Its counterclockwise spin is pulling steamy Caribbean air into the state that’s combining with daytime heating and afternoon sea breezes to create “gully washers,” Rossio said.
The storms have also been treacherous, spinning up a tornado in Loxahatchee on Monday and killing a Lake Worth woman Wednesday who was struck by lightning.
Maria Francisco Pascual, 53, was working at C.W. Hendrix Farm in far northwest Broward County when she was struck.
Thunderstorms are mentioned every day in the seven-day forecast with varying chances of rain. Today’s forecast is for between a 40 to 80 percent chance of rain, which is mirrored through the weekend. Not until Monday do rain chances fall to 40 percent where they stay into Wednesday.
“There’s just a fire hose aimed at Florida,” said Melody Lovin, a meteorologist with the NWS in Key West.
The rain will help areas that have been suffering from dry conditions that steadily rose on the U.S. Drought Monitor’s scale this spring. A weekly report released Thursday showed nearly all of Palm Beach County with no drought, but areas from Lee County through Collier County and into Miami-Dade County are still considered to be suffering from abnormally dry conditions to severe drought.
Eric Swartz, a meteorologist with the South Florida Water Management District, said while water conservation areas on the Broward and Palm Beach County line received up to 10 inches of rain since Sunday, parts of MiamiDade had less than an inch.
“It takes time to completely recharge the system,” Swartz said. “If you have water in your swale, and it’s sitting there all day, it’s recharged.”
While Swartz is more optimistic when a break in the rain may come — he’s thinking Sunday — he said the sogginess and humidity are here through summer.
“There will be rain around and that warm muggy feeling outside into October,” Swartz said.
The rainy season officially began Tuesday.