How long will this rain last? Long enough to make your commute seem forever
Many South Floridians woke to learn a weather term they might not have readily known: mesocyclone.
That word — for a vortex of air that rises and rotates around a vertical axis, usually in the same direction as low pressure systems and associated within strong thunderstorms — was at the center of a conversation between the National Weather Service in Key West and a weather buff on Twitter.
That’s what you get on a soggy mess of a morning when we haven’t seen all that much rain for a little while.
The weather service issued a flood advisory for the Lower Keys through 10:15 a.m. Tuesday and warns of some blocked streets.
By mid-afternoon about two inches of ran fell in parts of Miami-Dade, such as Opa-locka.
Miami International Airport saw more than an inch of rain. Palmetto Bay in South Miami-Dade and Aventura in North Miami-Dade were still seeing downpours in the afternoon.
The same situation exists in much of Broward County, including along Interstate 95 and Davie, Pembroke Pines and Interstate 75, Miami Herald news partner CBS4 reported.
The Florida Keys was even wetter, with some parts — especially the Lower Keys — reporting up to three inches through the end of the school day. But Key West was mostly clear by the afternoon and its temperature, about 83 degrees, was about 10 degrees warmer than most of Miami-Dade and Broward.
Get used to it, for the rest of this week anyway, according to the National Weather Service in Miami, which issued a hazardous weather alert on Thursday morning that included warnings of strong rip currents. The only upside is few will feel like swimming in a downpour, with likely lightning.
This band of storms that has already spawned flood warnings in the Florida Keys snarled traffic with dozens of accidents, including crashes on the Palmetto at Northwest 87th Avenue and on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami Beach during the morning commute. The system was moving from the Atlantic into the east coast.
The system is expected to drench much of Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, and Monroe counties for the rest ofThursday afternoon.
Thunderstorms are also likely to rumble through the areas of disturbed weather and bring lightning and heavy rainfall. Wind gusts, too, with some at 40 mph — call ‘em umbrella shredders unless you have a sturdy one.
The weather service says these showers and thunderstorms are possible across portions of South Florida through the weekend and into the start of the next work week. There will still be a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms as far out as next Tuesday in Miami-Dade, where temperatures will be in the 80s during the drier portions of the days.
This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 9:21 AM.
