Rain chances start to increase

After a very dry May, June could start with greater precipitation.

The month of May in Palm Beach County has been unseasonably hot and dry, but as the calendar turns to June and hurricane season, wet weather could be on the horizon.

“For Palm Beach County, it should be a little wetter next week,” National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Ippoliti said. “We’ve been very dry, but by Wednesday chances of rain should be up to 50 percent and higher by the end of the week.”

Only 1.48 inches of rain has fallen in the area in May, which is significantly below the county’s 4.51-inch average for the month.

Isolated and scattered showers are likely today, while Sunday rain chances increase slightly.

Ippoliti said the rainfall chance increase can be attributed to a weak low pressure system from the Gulf of

Mexico that will help pull in tropical moisture for South Florida.

“It should help break up the high pressure over the Western Atlantic,” Ippoliti said.

That high pressure system is a big reason for the dry air, easterly winds and rip currents of the past week, he added.

“It’s been a stronger, dominant wind from the east,” Ippoli- ti said. “There hasn’t been any interaction with the (Lake Okeechobee) breeze that helps create rainfall for coastal Palm Beach County.”

While Palm Beach County and the Atlantic cities have been dry for May, the west coast of Florida has been getting plent y of rain, generated by the strong easterly winds.

Port Charlotte has received 4.57 inches of rain, nearly double its May average of 2.5 inches. And Cape Coral has been hit with 7.05 inches of rain in May, well above its 2.65-inch average for the month.

As June and the summer months approach, Ippoliti said longer term weather patterns are often harder to predict — and it’s possible the county could even see similar dry conditions next week.

“It really depends on where things set up and how the patterns develop,” he said.