Tropical Development Continues To Be Possible Either Near The Southeast Coast Of The United States Or In The Northeastern Gulf During The Fourth Of July Holiday Weekend: Weather analysis as of today revealed an eastward moving frontal boundary that’s currently pushing into the eastern and southern United States. This frontal system is expected to stall and become an old front that sits off of the US Southeast coast by Thursday and Friday. It is then expected that a low pressure system will form along this front either somewhere near the US Southeast Coast or right over Florida or over the northeastern Gulf. Where exactly this low pressure system forms remains highly uncertain & is going to be important in determining whether tropical development might occur and also determine where any possible tropical system might go. All-in-all, this remains an uncertain and difficult forecast, but it’s a scenario that I’m watching very closely.
Latest Model Guidance: Most of the GFS ensemble model guidance members that do show development forecast this development to occur somewhere between offshore the coast of northeast Florida and near the Carolina coastline by about Saturday. The ensemble model guidance members then show any system to head northeastward and stay well east of New England during the first half of next week.
While a majority of the European ensemble model guidance members that do forecast development show it occurring very near coastal parts of northeast Florida, southeast Georgia and coastal South Carolina, there are a few members that forecast the development to occur out to the south of Bermuda. This development by the European ensemble model guidance looks to occur by about Saturday and a majority of the ensemble members show any system to head north and northwestward towards the coastal Carolinas by early next week. It should be noted though that the European ensemble model guidance has decreased development chances to about 30 percent just offshore of the US Southeast coast.
Here Are My Thoughts: Even though it seems like most of the model guidance are concentrating any development to occur near the US Southeast coast, I still think that the area in the northeastern Gulf is also a candidate for possible development. Old fronts sitting over the warm waters of the northeast Gulf and the southwestern North Atlantic are ripe for producing spin-up tropical systems near the tail end of that front and this is exactly what I think will occur this coming weekend.
All-in-all, I do think that the chances for tropical development somewhere in the northeast Gulf or near the US Southeast Coast seem to be gradually increasing.
There are at least a couple of scenarios that could occur this weekend.
The first scenario is for the low pressure system forming in the southwestern North Atlantic around Friday or Saturday and then becoming a depression or even a tropical storm as it tracks towards the Carolinas by about early next week.
The second scenario is for low pressure to form in the northeastern Gulf this weekend and head towards the central Gulf coast as a messy and very wet depression or tropical storm by early next week.
The third potential scenario is for the low pressure system to remain land locked over the Florida Peninsula this weekend & just “raining itself out” & never developing.
This is not an easy forecast at all, but be sure that I will be monitoring every aspect of this setup closely throughout the rest of this week.
Whether this system develops or not, it will still produce a rainy Fourth Of July holiday weekend across the entire Florida Panhandle and much of the Florida Peninsula. Some of this rainfall is also expected to affect the coastal Carolinas, southern Georgia and southern Alabama. The bullseye area of heaviest rainfall looks to be across the coastal parts of the Florida Panhandle, the Big Bend area of Florida and along the west coast of Florida from about Fort Myers and points north, including the Tampa Bay area leading to localized flash flooding.
Forecast Total Rainfall Amounts Late This Week Through This Weekend:


The next tropical weather discussion will be issued on Wednesday.

























