As the Atlantic hurricane season begins, the National Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning for parts of Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
“From final warningtropical storm warnings are in effect for all of South Florida,” the Miami National Weather Service said Friday.
As it is, tropical storm conditions are expected Friday night and Saturday, with heavy rains in South Florida, Central Florida and the Keys.
Flash flooding is possible in South Florida and the Keys, the National Weather Service warned.
At least in the Miami metropolitan area the rain does not stop from Thursday at dawn. The accompanying winds have been so strong that they have knocked down trees, fences and some traffic lights. This has led many condominiums to clear out drains, sandbag and control standing water, digging ditches to remove it.
A fast-growing weather system brewing in the Gulf of Mexico was expected Friday afternoon to bring heavy rain and flooding to the area and parts of Cuba on Friday and into the weekend, forecasters said.
“It’s going to be a wet pot,” Shirley Borg, who lives in a flood-prone area of Key Largo, told the local CBS channel in South Florida.
Borg said she went to the supermarket preparing for the possibility of being stuck at home for the next three days. Airlines have already begun canceling flights, a Miami International Airport spokesperson confirmed.
At the close, the National Hurricane Center indicated that the system had maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour. It was expected to develop a well-defined center and become Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
The Center warned that the storm could further intensify over the weekend, after it moves into eastern Florida and over the western Atlantic between Saturday and Sunday night.
“The main threat right now is the possibility of heavy rain and flash flooding,” said Maria Torres, public affairs officer for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The forecast for Florida includes the possibility of tornadoes in the southern part of the state through Saturday. South Florida and the Keys could see four to eight inches of rain, with isolated totals of up to 12 inches.
