South Florida flood warning to last through Saturday

Heavy rain from a tropical wave lingering over South Florida is triggering a flood warning through Saturday.

The wet system, which last week threatened to become a cyclone, is expected to continue dumping between two and four inches of rain on a region already saturated by the summer wet season, raising the risk of dangerous street flooding. The flood watch extended across much of South Florida, from Palm Beach County to south.

The rain will likely keep falling as the low pressure system slowly rolls to the northeast. Hurricane forecasters say the system could strengthen as it drifts to the northeast over the weekend or early next week, with the odds of it becoming a depression or storm at 40 percent.

While meteorologists called for two to four inches for much of South Florida, they warned amounts could be higher as the system lingers.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Harvey quickly intensified Thursday afternoon and is now expected to hit the Texas coast Friday as a major hurricane. In their latest advisory, National Hurricane Center forecasters said the storm had sustained winds of 85 mph Thursday evening, but will encounter weak wind shear that will allow it to strengthen into a Cat 3 storm or worse. The hurricane is also expected to stall once it makes landfall, raising the risk of life-threatening flooding.

Between 12 and 20 inches of rain could fall along the coast, with up to 30 inches possible, forecasters said. In South Texas, the Hill Country and parts of Louisiana, heavy rain could also trigger lethal flooding. They also warned dangerous storm surge could reach 12 feet on Padre Island and up to eight feet further north on Galveston Island.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 8:53 AM with the headline "South Florida flood warning to last through Saturday."