Slightly better chance for some weekend showers

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - We will see mostly dry weather through Friday with only one or two scattered late day showers or a possible thunderstorm. The rain chance is at 20%. Highs will be in the low to mid 90s with lows in the mid to upper 70s.

This weekend we will see a slight increase in moisture which will allow for a few showers to pop up on Saturday and Sunday. The rain chance is at 30% for a few late day storms. Look for mostly sunny skies in the morning becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. Highs will be in the low 90s and lows in the mid 70s which is fairly typical for this time of year.

For the start of the work week look for scattered late day storms to around through Wednesday otherwise mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies can be expected each day. The rain chance next week is at 40%.

In the tropics all eyes are on hurricane Lee. It is expected to gain strength and become a major category 4 storm by Saturday morning with sustained winds of 145 mph and gusts up to 175 mph. It could go even higher as it will be moving over extremely warm water and there will be little shear inhibiting this storm from becoming the strongest storm of the season. Thankfully those strong winds around its core will not be moving over any land during the next 5 days.

Most models are in agreement that it will continue to move to the WNW over the next 5 days and then turn more toward the north after that keeping it away from Florida and moving it toward Bermuda or slightly to the west of the Island. It is too early to say whether it will directly impact the east coast but it bears watching down the road late next week.

Elsewhere in the tropics we are watching two areas in the far eastern Atlantic. One west of Portugal only as a 20% chance of developing over the next few days and the other system is near the Cabo Verde islands and has a 70% chance of becoming Margot (Pronounced “Margo”) as it moves to the WNW into the open waters of the Atlantic.

At this time if hurricane Lee does become a major hurricane on Saturday we will have met the yearly average for the entire season for energy generated by the 12 storms already. We still have over half of the season to go. So yes this season is going to go down as a very active one with already 12 named storms forming thus far. We could go through the list of names this year if it keeps up at the rate it has been going.

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