Still a lot of uncertainty with path of Fiona next week
Good chance for P.M. storms Friday
SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - As of 11 p.m. Thursday tropical storm Fiona is still having a hard time with some moderate westerly winds or shear and dry air. Winds remain at 60 mph with gusts up to 70 mph mainly well east of the center. Fairly strong winds from the west along with some relatively dry air is keeping Fiona from becoming a strong wind storm at this time. Fiona continues to move to the west at around 15 mph with winds up to 60 mph. There are tropical storm warnings up for the northern leeward islands. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Islands in the Caribbean which will turn to warnings later in the day on Friday.
Conditions are expected to stay rather hostile for development over the next 5 days. The cone has shifted south and more toward the west this keeps Florida in play. The latest GFS or U.S. forecast model which had been projecting the storm well east of the Bahamas and Florida next week has now shifted well to the west much closer to the Bahamas and Florida by next Wednesday. The uncertainty of where the center of Fiona will be next week will be determined by how strong the storm is while moving around or over Hispaniola and the high pressure to the north of it. There is a chance it could disrupt the circulation and bring it back down to a tropical depression or a much weaker tropical storm by Tuesday as it emerges into the SW Atlantic.
It is still too far out to say whether Florida will see a direct impact from Fiona but it’s trending that way for now with the EURO showing it nearing SE FL by Friday (9/23) of next week.
The storm is not expected to be a big wind storm as it moves near Puerto Rico but life threatening flash flooding and mudslides will be an issue Sunday and early Monday.
Stay tuned to ABC7 and our ABC7 First Alert Weather app to keep up any changes that will be sure to occur over the upcoming week.
Our weather will be wet at times on Friday with a 30% chance for scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms along the coast in the morning and then shifting inland later in the afternoon. During the early evening some of those storms will work back toward the coast from 6p.m. until 9 p.m. The rain chance jumps to 70% later in the day. Skies will be partly cloudy through much of the morning with increasing cloudiness by mid afternoon.
Saturday the rain chances stay high at 70% for mainly late day storms and some of those storms will produce some locally heavy rain at times which could cause some minor flooding concerns. The high on Saturday will be around 90 degrees.
The rain chances will lower a bit on Sunday under partly cloudy skies with highs in the upper 80s to low 90s.
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