Here's your Tampa area weather forecast for late Thursday into Friday morning, with a preview of weekend conditions.

  • Higher rain chances
  • Slightly lower highs
  • Keeping an eye on Irma

The drier air was quickly replaced by increasing atmospheric moisture today, resulting in the scattered storms we’ve seen. There will be some lingering scattered storms overnight.

Lows will be in the mid to upper 70s.

Rain chances will be on the rise the next couple days as atmospheric moisture continues to increase. With that in mind, expect the coverage of storms back up to about 60 percent the next couple days, possibly even about 70 percent. It’s that time of year where we don’t need much moisture in the atmosphere, when put together with our daily hot temperatures and the sea breeze, to trigger the thunderstorms.

Don’t be surprised if they start earlier in the morning, especially near coastal zones and over the Gulf. They will tend to propagate away from the coastal zones through the afternoon to evening.

High temperatures will be slightly lower, mainly in the upper 80s to low 90s the next couple days due to the extra cloud cover and storms.

September extremes for Tampa Bay

  • Highest temperature - 96 on Sept. 6, 1991, Sept 19, 1972
  • Lowest temperature - 54 on Sept. 22, 1897
  • Wettest September - 18.93 inches of rain in 1912
  • Driest September - .79 inches of rain in 1910
  • Normal September rainfall - 6.54 inches of rain

TROPICS

Harvey fell apart, but the remnants are still spreading lots of rain across the deep south. Elsewhere in the Gulf and Caribbean things are quiet right now. Looking way out in the east Atlantic is where we find Hurricane Irma.

Irma has intensified greatly, but the good news is it’s not near any land and won’t be for many days ahead, so there’s no need to stress too much about it at this time. However, it’s the first potential threat to the southeastern U.S. this season and will need to be watched.

A strong high pressure will keep it moving west and then even push it some to the south. That will result in it being just northeast of the Lesser Antilles next week.

Irma is a long ways away, so even at about week away it will not be near the U.S. But beyond that point there are numerous possibilities, as its path is unpredictable this far out.

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