Will Miami flood again before it drops to the 40s and 50s? A new cold front could follow
A coming cold front in South Florida will start arriving Thursday. But first, parts of downtown Miami were under water.
A series of flash flood alerts covered Miami to Boca on Tuesday. And the rain dumped downtown caused cars to stall in the middle of the street.
Brickell took the brunt of the wet weather in downtown Miami, as 2 1/2 inches fell through Tuesday evening, George Rizzuto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said Wednesday morning.
“Brickell took quite a lot of rain and it was mainly confined to the far east coast,” Rizzuto said.
Brickell Plaza, near Southeast Ninth Street at Mary Brickell Village, saw water seeping into store fronts and stranding drivers.
Ride-share drivers were not immune to the inconvenience.
“Boom. I stopped, I couldn’t see. It was flooding that much, you know what I’m saying?” stranded Uber driver Juan Cuartas told WSVN-7 on Tuesday evening. “I couldn’t even get out because the door was stuck.”
“Rain is a sign of a blessing. You pray for rain. All we need is drainage around here. This is as drain problem, not a rain problem,” Rabbi Chaim Lipskar told Miami Herald news partner CBS4.
Lipskar, of the area’s The Rok Family Shul — Chabad Downtown Jewish Center, told the station he’s been asking Miami leaders to deal with drainage issues in the area of his shul, 35 SE Ninth St. in Miami, for years.
Will it flood again in Miami?
Forecasters at the weather service are watching some showers that were offshore Wednesday morning and “mainly behaving” by staying offshore, Rizzuto said. But keep your umbrellas handy, and if you have to be on the roads later in the day, be aware more rain and flooding could be on the way.
“Later today is kind of a similar story as yesterday,” Rizzuto said Wednesday. “Not necessarily a huge flooding risk. But if we do start to see these showers start to come onshore in areas like Brickell and downtown and areas that saw a lot of rain yesterday we might have some problems with flash flooding this afternoon. We’ll have to keep watching as it evolves.”
The wet weather — a 50% chance for rain in South Florida on Wednesday — is associated with the first real cold front of the year we will start to feel Thursday.
Friday and Saturday could be the coldest days, with temperatures possibly dipping to the upper-40s in parts of South Florida, including Homestead, according to the weather service.
The southern tips of Florida should expect the lower-50s for Friday morning and Saturday. Key West should be warmer, around 60.
Another cold front, already?
Rizzuto said the weather service in Miami was looking at a second cold front to piggyback on Thursday’s, with arrival time on Sunday a possibility.
“For Sunday, it’s uncertain what the current model shows,” he said. “The chances for some showers are mainly marine hazards we’re looking at, like some gusty winds and a rip current risk for Sunday.
“Right now, we’re not seeing anything crazy with a cold front on Sunday. It’s all depending on how strong it will be and we have to watch and see if it can make it all the way down here. Sometimes precipitation fizzles out before it makes it down to South Florida.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 11:20 AM.
