2 Weather Disturbances Gun For Florida

TAMPA, FL — Hurricane Lee and Tropical Storm Maria may get top billing, but two areas of disturbed weather are also drawing the attention of forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. As of Friday morning, both storms had Florida in their sights.

The first area of disturbed weather under watch extended from the northwestern Caribbean Sea, across western Cuba, to the southern tip of Florida by Friday morning. Forecasters expect a weak low-pressure system to arise from the disturbance near Florida’s west coast over the coming weekend. (For more weather or local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Tampa Patch, and click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Environmental conditions are ripe for possible development of the system more over the next few days. Forecasters have given it a 40 percent chance of further development over the next 48 hours.

Regardless of development, the hurricane center says, “this system is likely to produce locally heavy rainfall over portions of central and western Cuba, the Florida Keys (and) the Florida peninsula during the next several days.”

The storm comes as many portions of Florida remain waterlogged courtesy of Hurricane Irma’s run across the state earlier in the month. Forecasters at the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office warned Friday that flooding is likely to continue on several rivers in the region over the weekend, especially the Withlacoochee.

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“Chances for heavy rains will increase this weekend, which will have the potential to exacerbate flooding on both main stem rivers and small creeks,” the weather service wrote in Friday’s Hazardous Weather Outlook report for the Tampa Bay area.

Should the first disturbance develop enough to earn a name, it would be called Nate.

The second disturbance under watch was a tropical wave located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea by Friday morning at 8 a.m. That system is expected to dump heavy rain on Hurricane Maria-battered areas, such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, over the next few days.

As of Friday morning, forecasters gave the system only a 20 percent chance of forming more over the next five days. They warned, however, that “conditions could become a little more favorable for some development next week while the system moves toward the west-northwest.”

Should the system develop more, it would earn the name Ophelia.

Meanwhile, Lee and Maria both remained on paths that are leading them into the colder waters of the north Atlantic. Neither storm poses a major through to the U.S. mainland at present.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year. Average seasons produce about 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes. Three of the hurricanes are generally deemed major. Forecasters call the period between mid-August and mid-October the “season within the season.” This eight-week period “is often the most active and dangerous time for tropical cyclone activity,” according to the NOAA.

Residents readying for the ongoing season can get tips and advice on the federal government’s Ready.gov website.

Graphic courtesy of the National Hurricane Center