Here's what you need to know for Central Florida's weather on the upcoming weekend:

  • Focusing on Tropical Storm Erika
  • Uncertainty with Erika
  • Erika nearing Puerto Rico
  • Erika on the Move

Erika is a still very disorganized and surprisingly, still headed west! The combination of wind shear and interaction with Hispaniola and Cuba could destroy Erika at any time over the next day or so. If (and that's a HUGE IF) Erika hangs on and happens to find itself over warm water between Cuba and Florida, it could strengthen, but not much.

Because Erika's center reformed south of the islands of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, it's maintained a more westerly course for a longer amount of time. The forecast models have responded by consistently shifting their tracks westward. Weak systems like Erika do not have a lot of depth and are steered by low level winds. Erika will take a path over Cuba then into Florida or perhaps the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Under a clear to partly cloudy sky, we are forecasting a muggy low in the mid-70s. More sea breeze thunderstorms are expected both Saturday and Sunday, with torrential rain, frequent lightning, and a few wind gusts possible. Highs are expected to be either side of 90 both Saturday and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday are heavily relying on Erika. If she ends up a remnant low in the Gulf, we may drag in enough dry air to enjoy a nice week ahead, with highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s. Any closer inland, we will have rounds of rain and highs in the mid to upper 80s.

View: StormTracker 13 Interactive Radar

Map: Cloud-to-Ground Lightning

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