ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s been an interesting last few days for all across Central Florida!
The National Hurricane Center pinpointed an area of disturbed weather right off our coastline on Monday.
To add a little extra fuel to the fire, an upper-level low was stuck off our western shores, helping drive even more moisture and rainfall across the Florida Peninsula.
As of this morning, NHC has completely dropped any development chances for our little feature expected to hug the coastline of the southeastern United States before disappearing into the rest of our upper air pattern over the eastern United States.
But this doesn’t mean the rain disappears because of the zeroed chances of formation. We’re still under the same messy pattern as expected over the last couple of days, and Wednesday will be the worst of the rain.
Later Wednesday afternoon, around 1-2 p.m., is when the heavier pockets of rainfall will build in.
With such an enormous gap in our rains since Tuesday into the first half of Wednesday, we could see some thunderstorms develop within the shield of rain. These are called “embedded thunderstorms,” and sometimes you miss them if you’re looking at a radar filled with an abundance of greens, yellows, and reds.
There is no threat for severe weather on Wednesday, but if we do see some thunderstorms try to flare up within the main area of showers and rains headed in, we could see some gusty winds and a good amount of lightning. This will especially cause a couple of issues for your afternoon commute.
The flow of things will be out of the southwest, moving northeast. Right now, Polk and Osceola counties are beginning to see the outer leading edge of the next band of rains. Closer to mid-afternoon, and especially what’s designated as “peak rush hour,” is when the heaviest storms will begin.
We’re particularly pinpointing our northern and eastern counties for some of the greatest accumulations of rainfall, which could lead to some urban and street flooding.
The Weather Prediction Center does have the entirety of us highlighted for a level one risk of excessive rainfall.
After Wednesday, our rain chances will start to diminish, but only slightly. That’s all thanks to the Saharan dust expected to roll in overhead by tonight and through the rest of the week.
While this won’t completely suppress our shot at seeing more rain Thursday and Friday afternoons, this will limit the overall amount we receive. I do want to add, what does fall - be prepared; if you’ve never lived in the desert, you may not have seen this before.
With the dust high up in the atmosphere, usually hovering somewhere at the highest points where our weather is observed, clouds will naturally attract the particles themselves.
This actually can help clouds condense and form sometimes. Because of this, the raindrops will carry with them small bits of dust which will coat your outdoor items, lawn and garden pieces, your automobiles, whatever you have sitting out in it.
I mention the desert, because this happened all the time. Living in Tucson, if you didn’t receive a torrential downpour, your cars and the outdoors smelled of dust and were FILTHY!
So maybe make plans to hit the car wash shortly after this dust outbreak wraps up by Sunday into early next week.
The dust is helping us in one category — the tropics!
Dry air and land interaction helped to squash the small, disorganized area off our east coast. The dust coming up from the Caribbean Sea will also help keep things fairly quiet throughout the rest of the basin.
However, the Climate Prediction Center, as well as your News 6 Weather Team, are continuing to watch trends near Central America.
The area is still given a small shot at trying to spin something up before the end of the month, especially as the Madden Julian Oscillation comes across helping to clear out dust and amp up moisture/lift.
We shall see! For now, there are no clear signals that Andrea (the first name on the list of Atlantic hurricane names for 2025) will be joining us in the immediate future.
