Watching the Gulf: Heavy rain in the east?

A broad area of low pressure is located over the south-central Gulf of Mexico this morning and continues to bring showers and thunderstorms over the Florida Keys and southern Florida.


While this low hasn't changed much over the past day the National Hurricane Center is giving it about a 60% chance of some type of tropical development within the next day or so. Whether or not it develops into something has yet to be seen, but heavy rain will continue to fall across the Yucatan Peninsula, Western Cuba, Florida Keys and southern Florida. An air force reserve reconnaissance aircraft is scheduled to investigate the low later this afternoon.

Later in the week that low is expected to combine with a disturbance moving through the Plains, that's where our cloud cover this morning is coming from, and move up the east coast by Wednesday and Thursday. As it does it will pull tropical moisture northward and potentially bring heavy showers through the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio River Valley before lifting by this weekend.