Home News Back to School Heat and Humidity; Watching the Tropics

Back to School Heat and Humidity; Watching the Tropics

By Donna Thomas, SouthFloridaReporter.com Meteorologist, Aug 24, 2015 – South Florida is hot and humid as the school year begins. After a few morning showers, Monday features highs in the muggy low 90s (with some higher readings possible) and scattered storms forming early to mid afternoon before moving well inland. Tuesday will bring a few more afternoon storms, along with highs mostly in the sticky low 90s. Wednesday’s weather will be similar, and we’ll see rain chances increase on Thursday and Friday, and highs will remain in the low 90s, typical for late August.

084842W5_NL_smTropical Storm Danny was approaching the Lesser Antilles early Monday as its weakening process continues. At 5 am Monday, Danny was located near 15.8 North, 60.5 West, and it was moving more slowly to the west at 9 miles per hour. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 40 miles per hour, but Danny is still forecast to weaken to depression strength as it enters the eastern Caribbean, become a remnant low on Tuesday, and dissipate near Hispaniola on Wednesday. The Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic will experience heavy rains and possibly flash flooding from this system.

Elsewhere in the tropics, the wave we’ve been watching is now in the central Atlantic and two_atl_5d0is likely to become a depression during the next day or two as it moves westward at about 20 miles per hour. Its track is expected to be similar to Danny’s, so we’ll watch it closely. And a wave just east of the Cape Verde Islands has a low chance of developing into a depression over the next 5 days, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Monday marks 23 years since Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida. It was one of only three Category 5 hurricanes to hit the U.S. mainland in the 20th century, and anyone who lived through it will never forget its most basic lesson — that we all need to make hurricane readiness a way of life in South Florida.download

Donna Thomas has studied hurricanes for two decades. She holds a PhD in history when her experience with Hurricane Andrew ultimately led her to earn a degree in broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State University. Donna spent 15 years at WFOR-TV (CBS4 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale), where she worked as a weather producer with hurricane experts Bryan Norcross and David Bernard. She also produced hurricane specials and weather-related features and news coverage, as well as serving as pool TV producer at the National Hurricane Center during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Donna also served as a researcher on NOAA's Atlantic Hurricane Database Reanalysis Project. Donna specializes in Florida's hurricane history.