Stormy Weather for Florida

The weather in Florida Thursday will not exactly make for a "chamber of commerce" day.

Rainy and stormy conditions will overtake the Sunshine State.

The same system that brought a soggy Election Day to the lower Mississippi Valley was drifting eastward, heading for Florida and the southern Atlantic Seaboard.

Heavy rain with locally strong thunderstorms is pushing eastward tonight over the Florida Panhandle.

Look for showers and thunderstorms to fill in over the Florida Peninsula Thursday.
Enough rain could fall on some locales to cause a few incidents of flooding in low-lying and urban areas.

Poor visibility from rain and perhaps strong thunderstorms could threaten the shuttle launch slated for Thursday afternoon.

People with outdoor plans throughout the day may have to run for cover at some point due to the downpours and thunderstorms.

The downpours will lead to slow travel on the highways and at airports.

The state, especially the peninsula, will welcome the rain as little or no rain has fallen in many areas since late September.

As the Southern storm combines forces with a new storm forming along the mid-Atlantic coast, cold air will be driven southward over the shores of the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week.

Many locations in the South are likely to have their coolest weather since last spring Friday and Saturday, including Florida cities of Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando and Miami.

Interestingly, the storm producing the rain in the South will tug Tomas northward toward Haiti in the Caribbean Thursday into Friday.


By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist