There’s a 50 percent chance that South Florida will see the area’s first tropical system by Friday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said this evening.
“It looks like it has the makings of becoming our next tropical depression,” said Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center, said of a low-pressure system moving westward over the Gulf of Mexico and pulling rain and wind over South Florida.
He said that system could become a tropical depression by Friday afternoon. And if it were to become a tropical storm — something that is several days off, if it happens at all — it would be named Debby.
Regardless of the system’s track or intensity, South Florida can expect heavy rains, thunderstorms, clouds and possibly localized flooding. The system will also affect western Cuba and the central Bahamas.
Upper-level winds appear to be favorable for a tropical storm to develop as the low moves slowly to the north.
Whether it will then develop into a tropical storm is still not clear, Stewart said, although it remains a possibility.
Meanwhile, there’s a 30 percent chance of rain this evening — and an even greater likelihood for wet weather this weekend, the weather service said.
Tonight’s low temperature will be about 75 degrees, down about 10 degrees from this afternoon’s high, with an east wind blowing between 3 and 11 mph.
Meteorologists put the chances of rain at 60 percent chance Friday and 70 percent Saturday. Sunday’s chance of rain goes back down to 60 percent.
“A generally wet pattern should continue across the area through the weekend and into midweek next week,” said the discussion of conditions that the weather service posted online this morning.
