Fiona to bring heavy rain to Puerto Rico this weekend

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Fiona is looking a bit stronger late Friday but wind shear and some dry air is still inhibiting it from becoming a hurricane at this time. Top winds are now up to 60 mph. The National Hurricane Center keeps it as a tropical storm through Hispaniola. Fiona is expected to move into the SW Atlantic early next week. Conditions will become a little more conducive for the storm to strengthen into a low end hurricane as it moves to the NW then to the north staying away from Florida.

Puerto Rico could see up to 20″ of rainfall late Saturday through Sunday as it moves slowly near the island. If it does survive the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola it could become a problem for the southern Bahamas and then possibly Bermuda.

This will be a dangerous storm for the Dominican Republic and Haiti with torrential rain and life threatening mudslides.

Saturday look for partly cloudy skies with a chance for a few showers along the coast in the morning and then a 70% chance for scattered storms by mid afternoon and through the evening. Some of the rain could be heavy at times as the atmosphere is really juiced up for now. The high on Saturday will be near 90 degrees.

Sunday some slightly drier air will move in and drop our rain chances to 50% for mainly late day storms. Look for mostly sunny skies throughout much of the day. The high will be near 90 degrees.

Monday and Tuesday we will see partly cloudy skies with a 40% chance for scattered late day storms. Highs will be in the upper 80s with some slightly drier air.

Wednesday the skies will be generally sunny with only a small chance for late day storms.

Copyright 2022 WWSB. All rights reserved.