After several days dominated by heat and only very isolated showers, South Florida is getting ready for a major shift in the weather pattern that will bring a significant increase in the coverage of downpours and thunderstorms starting this Saturday and, especially, from Sunday into early next week.
While the rainfall will be welcome news to partially ease the drought affecting the region, it will also raise the risk of urban flooding due to the possibility of repeated rain over the same areas.
What’s causing this change?
For much of the week, an area of high pressure over the Atlantic and the presence of relatively dry air limited storm development, focusing most activity over inland and Southwest Florida.
However, that pattern will begin to shift over the weekend. An upper-level trough will strengthen over the eastern United States, while a series of frontal systems will remain stalled north of Florida. At the same time, a deep stream of tropical moisture will set up over the southern part of the state…