Brian: Widespread showers & storms this afternoon, drier weather ahead mid-week..

Good morning! I hope you managed to have a great July 4th despite the extra wet weather over the weekend; fortunately, we did dry out in time for fireworks displays for most of southwest Florida! Expect plenty of natural fireworks again today as the pattern remains unsettled for one more day. The atmosphere is loaded with moisture (one field we look at is something called precipitable water -- and at any given time, there's over 2.5" of water in the atmosphere at a given point in southwest Florida!) again leading to some torrential rain in storms today. There is also the possibility of frequent lightning in any storms. Today's forecast:

Naples  Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 89
Bonita Springs Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 88
Fort Myers Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 88
Cape Coral Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 87
Port Charlotte Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 87
Hendry Co. Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 89
Glades Co. Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 87
DeSoto Co. Mostly Cloudy  Scattered Mainly PM Storms; High 87

 

Drier air though, finally, is poised to push into southwest Florida. Delayed over the weekend, the dry air will finally push south as high pressure branches down the east coast leading to lower rain chances on Tuesday, and higher temperatures. The chance of storms may even back off into the isolated category by Wednesday and Thursday as temps push toward the mid 90's. Whenever dry air is in place aloft, though, any storms can feature very strong wind and we'll be in the look out for that at mid-week.

 

I'll have more on your forecast on WINK and 6 TV all morning. Hope you can join us.

 

Brian

Scott: dry now but more rain this weekend. 4th of July , hmmm could we stay dry?

Right now it is looking like most of the rain will be done by 8 pm Sunday! Let's hope so for the fireworks.

A developing low in the northern gulf will keep it wet this weekend.. Not to worried about it become a big tropical threat.. Moving west now over the oil spill.

Sent from Zed's iPhone

Scott: wet again folks! Light rain over lee county. Details at 5.

Another wet day Saturday. Looks like this pattern stays with us thru the holiday weekend! Soggy and cloudy. Watching a low near the panhandle trying to develop, this will only add to the rain chances the next several days. Details starting on wink at 5. Join me at 7 on wink!

Sent from Zed's iPhone

Thunder and Lightning

It's unusual, but true.  A weak cold front is in the vicinity of North Florida, close enough to SW Florida to cause increasing clouds with scattered slow moving thunderstorms this weekend. Happy July 4th!  Snap, crackle, pop.- Jim

Brian: Showers starting to develop now across southwest Florida...

A few isolated showers have begun to pop up across southwest Florida and these should become more numerous as the afternoon rolls on. Expect fairly widespread storms today, again with torrential downpours. Highs will be a bit cooler today because of the clouds and all of the moisture left behind from the past few days; highs will be near 90 most spots. Similar weather in your Saturday forecast but it does look like we might trend toward slightly drier weather -- emphasis on slightly -- for July 4th. I'll have the latest details coming up on WINK News at Noon.

 

Brian

Brian: Several areas to watch in Atlantic over next few days..

Good morning! Hurricane Alex is gone (but not forgotten as heavy rain continues to plague parts of central and northern Mexico this morning) and now there are several new areas to watch in the tropical Atlantic. Truly, a remarkable amount of convection (storms) are occurring across the Atlantic for so early in the hurricane season. One area we'll be watching is both the northeast Gulf and the Atlantic just east of Florida as a frontal zone moves over warm water. In fact, already there are signs that low pressure is developing in the northeast Gulf and the National Hurricane Center is giving this a low chance of developing into a tropical or subtropical system in the next 48 hours.

 

Elsewhere, there are 3 separate waves in the central and eastern Atlantic and another strong wave just moving into the southwestern Caribbean. It is this wave that a few of our models key in on as a candidate for development in the western Caribbean over the next 3-6 days.

We'll keep you posted!

 

Brian

Brian: Mostly cloudy today with rain & storms likely.. highs in the low 90's..

Today's forecast numbers:

 

Naples  Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 90
Bonita Springs Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 91
Fort Myers Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 91 
Cape Coral Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 90
Port Charlotte Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 90
Hendry Co. Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 91
Glades Co. Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 90
DeSoto Co. Mostly Cloudy  PM Storms Likely; High 89

 

Stay dry!

 

Brian