Monday marked the start of some tumultuous weather this week, with many rounds of showers and thunderstorms expected across South Florida, according to the National Weather Service.
The pattern of afternoon thunderstorms and localized rain will repeat itself as the week progresses, with intensity picking up on Friday; winds will increase to 9 mph to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph and Friday will have an 80% chance of rain.
Thunderstorms put all inbound flights heading to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the Miami International Airport on hold for hours Monday evening, according to an advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration. Ground stops were in place at both airports until 9 p.m.
Flights departing from and arriving at the Fort Lauderdale and Miami airports are delayed about an hour, according to FlightAware.
Day after day, the intensity of the afternoon rain pattern could lead to flooding, said Luke Culver, a meteorologist with the weather service. “There’s going to be a thunderstorm risk every afternoon, and with that it looks like the storm motions are going to be relatively slow, so there will be flood threat each afternoon into the evening.”
He said the east coast metro area is particularly vulnerable this week. “Storms get pinned between the sea breeze and the overall wind field that is generally out of the west. So they get pinned along the east coast metro,” he said. That pinning, along with hard surfaces, can intensify the potential flooding.
It will remain hot. Air temperatures will be in the low 90s and heat indices will reach just above 100 degrees. Some areas could reach a heat index of 103 degrees.
Coral Gables received 5 inches of rain on Monday. The rest of the week looks stormy as well. On Tuesday, sunny with a high of 92 will give way to afternoon thunderstorms with new rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
