Thunderstorms Return To Tampa Bay’s Forecast

TAMPA, FL — Tampa Bay area residents and visitors may want to pull out their umbrellas. Forecasters at the National Weather Service say the region is in for increasing storm chances as the workweek progresses.

Tuesday is expected to kick off the short workweek with mostly sunny conditions and a high in the low 90s throughout much of the region. Storm chances are slight, but not entirely out of the question in inland areas. A partly cloudy night is expected with a low in the mid-to-upper 70s forecast.

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Wednesday is again expected to start off with sunny skies and a high in the low 90s. Isolated thunderstorms may appear in some parts of the region heading in the afternoon hours. Chances for storms are slight at 20 percent in the afternoon hours, but increase to about 30 percent in the evening hours. The overnight low is expected to fall into the low-to-mid-70s.

Thursday is expected to deliver stronger chances for storms in the afternoon hours. The morning, however, should start out with mostly sunny skies with a high climbing to the low 90s. Storms chances stick around at 40 percent heading into the overnight hours when the low is expected to fall into the upper 70s.

Forecasters expect Friday could be a bit of a washout. Instead of afternoon storms, Friday’s rains are expected to appear after 9 a.m. There’s a 60 percent chance for showers and storms during the daytime hours in much of the Tampa Bay area. The day’s high is forecast to climb into the upper 80s. Storm chances stick around at 60 percent in much of the region heading into the nighttime hours when the temperature should fall into the mid-70s.

Strong chances for scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected to stick around through the weekend. As of Monday, forecasters expected the high on Saturday to not quite break the 90-degree mark.

While organized, severe weather isn’t expected over the week ahead, forecasters have issued a few warnings. Thunderstorms that develop over the next few days may produce “strong gusty winds, locally heavy rains and frequent, deadly lighting strikes,” forecasters warned in Tuesday’s Hazardous Weather Outlook report for the region.

For an extended forecast in your neighborhood, visit your local Patch’s homepage.

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