Here's what you need to know for Central Florida's weather on for the rest of the week:

  • Increasing rain chances
  • Watching tropical activity
  • Busy in the tropics
  • T.S. Erika pushing west

Strong storms moving across Central Florida sparked at least one lightning fire in Orange County, felled a large tree in Poinciana and may be responsible for a small plane going down in Brevard County.

Lightning struck the roof of an apartment building in Winter Park. There was minor damage to the roof of a building at the Calibre Bend Apartments, but at least two units suffered water damage. Residents were briefly evacuated but eventually allowed back into the building, except for the two units affected.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued Wednesday afternoon for northwest Osceola County. That's where a large tree fell across a man's home and car.

The tree came down at a home on Green Court in Poinciana in the area of the Stonegate Golf Club. No one was hurt.

A few isolated showers lingering around midnight will continue to fall apart.  Clouds are expected to slowly erode to where we should start off with mostly sunny conditions Thursday.  Temperatures will bottom out near 76 overnight too.

Rain chances bump to 70 percent Thursday, and stay at 50 percent to 60 percent through the weekend. Torrential rain, frequent lightning, and wind gusts will be possible the next several days. Highs slip into the lower 90s tomorrow through Sunday, with lows in the middle 70s.

We’re still keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Erika, but she’s having a tough time organizing due to dry air intrusion and strong upper level wind. Recent satellite loop shows a disorganized mess of thunderstorms, with the center of circulation out ahead of the main thunderstorm activity. It should be noted, the Hurricane Hunters cannot even find a closed center of circulation, which would mean Erika has weakened more.

Forecast models are ALL over the place, with one now pushing Erika well east of the Bahamas, then back into the central Atlantic, and another weakening Erika to a remnant low, and pulling it through the Florida Straits. In any case, Erika doesn’t gain any intensity over the next 3 or 4 days, but could slowly strengthen over the weekend.

The cone of uncertainty is very broad, so stay tuned for updates at :21 & :51 every hour.

View: StormTracker 13 Interactive Radar

Map: Cloud-to-Ground Lightning

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