Small chance for only a few late day storms

WWSB ABC7 News at 6pm

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - The summer afternoon thunderstorm pattern doesn’t really get cranking up until a week or two into June. We are going to see a few late day storms on Friday but that rain chance is only at 30%. It will be another hot one with highs near or slightly above 90 degrees away from the beaches and mid to upper 80s there. The heat index will be in the low to mid 90s away from the water. As the sea breeze kicks in by early afternoon look for slightly cooler temperatures near the coast.

An extreme drought is in effect for parts of Manatee County — An extreme drought is in effect for parts of Manatee County(WWSBS)

We could use the rain as parts of Manatee County are now in an extreme drought. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several other agencies update the map every Thursday. Most of the remaining Counties in our viewing area are in a severe drought. We are now over 5″ inches below average for much of the area and it looks like we will only see isolated showers and a few thunderstorms over the course of the next 7days so look for the extreme drought to move further south into our area next week.

We will see mostly sunny skies in the morning with only a few fair weather cumulus clouds developing by the afternoon. The highs on Saturday will once again approach 90 in most areas. The rain chance on Saturday for late day storms is only at 20-30%.

Sunday or Mother’s Day look for beautiful weather with mostly sunny skies and highs in the upper 80s and no real prospect for any significant rain as some drier air slips in.

Monday will be more of the same with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the low 70s and only a 20% chance for a late day shower or two.

Area of low pressure back in mid Jan. is now classified as the 1st. storm of the season — Area of low pressure back in mid Jan. is now classified as the 1st. storm of the season(WWSB)

In some tropical news the National Hurricane Center has done some hindsight research on a storm off the NE coast in mid January of 2023 and found that it had characteristics of a sub-tropical depression. So that system is now deemed TD#1 for the 2023 season. So the next tropical depression to form will be called “Tropical Depression #2″. Right now there are no areas of concern in the tropics.

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