A tropical storm is likely to make landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast

The tropical rainstorm causing flooding in Puerto Rico right now is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm before hitting Florida this weekend.

Transcript

00:00Right now let's head to Florida where we're dealing with heat and also

00:03thunderstorms at times for places like Orlando and come this weekend we're also

00:07going to see impacts from a developing tropical system. So off the bat here the

00:12current status of our tropical rainstorm is one that is producing some pretty

00:17deep convection over areas like southwestern Haiti. There are some areas

00:21with localized flooding and that's a problem at the center of the storm

00:24continues to cruise west and it's going to be moving through an area near Cuba

00:28and toward the Straits of Florida. Overall here's what radar would look

00:32like this is supplemented by some satellite data as well so areas around

00:35Haiti and also out near Punta Cana some locally heavy rain. We have seen some

00:40flooding reports into parts of Puerto Rico, eastern parts of Puerto Rico

00:44seeing some areas of flooding out there in recent hours especially earlier today.

00:49So let's take a look at the overall the tropical tracker showing that we're

00:53to be dealing with limited organization for the next 18 to 24 hours because of

00:58land interaction we've got some big islands there there are some mountains

01:01in eastern Cuba as well and there's still some relatively dry air that's in

01:05place but as this moves farther west it's going to enter a zone where there's

01:10a little bit more moisture out here and again the biggest obstacle of this storm

01:13had faced was dry air earlier in its life cycle. Now we're getting past that

01:18so how heavier showers and storms will be a big concern and likelihood is that

01:23this is going to become a tropical depression and we're forecasting it to

01:26become a tropical storm probably on the Gulf Coast side of Florida. So here we

01:30have AccuWeather's tropical eyepath for this tropical rainstorm. You'll notice

01:35that we forecast this to become a tropical depression beginning around 8

01:39p.m. Saturday in the Florida Keys and then it may become a landfalling

01:43tropical storm around 8 p.m. Sunday but look at this slow slow slow forward

01:49motion all week long near the south side of Georgia and the South Carolina coast

01:53so here's the snapshot Saturday as we become a tropical storm or tropical

01:58depression becoming a tropical storm into Sunday and impacts likely

02:02increasing into North Florida with some downpours.