ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Here's your Tampa area weather forecast for late Thursday into Friday morning, along with a look at conditions through the weekend.

  • Scattered storms
  • Weekend drier air
  • Temperature a little hotter

Most of the thunderstorms that formed today were late this afternoon into this evening. The low is in the gulf to our west, and most of the rain was out there earlier in the day.

But now we’ve seen some scattered storms over land due to the sea breeze boundaries. The best coverage going forward will be over inland areas. They will die down with partly cloudy skies into Friday morning.

Lows will be in the low to mid 70s, expect for upper 60s in northern counties.

The upper low will continue to spin in the gulf Friday. Although most of the rain associated with it will be in the gulf to begin with, it will help produce more clouds over our area and also help trigger some scattered storms in our area.

As a result, the coverage of storms will be held at 50 percent. Highs will be in the upper 80s in coastal regions with low 90s inland.

The scattered storms will die down Friday night, but still be scattered about, so keep that in mind if you have evening plans. Lows will be in the low to mid 70s.

Saturday will feature drier air moving in, so rain chances will be dropping into the 30 percent range. Highs therefore will be hotter, mainly in the low to mid 90s.

Keep in mind that even though we’re expecting lower coverage of storms this weekend, it has nothing to do with intensity. The storms that form will still contain very heavy rain, intense lightning, and possibly some hail.

The best chance of any lingering few storms Saturday night will be over inland areas. Otherwise, it will be partly cloudy with lows in the low to mid 70s.

Sunday and Monday will also feature dry air so the rain chance will only be at about 20 to 30 percent.

Highs during that time will be in the low 90s, expect for by the coast where it will be in the upper 80s.

From middle to late part of next week it appears moisture will start to increase from the south. Assuming that pans out we’ll likely be looking at higher rain chances returning at that time.

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The seven-day forecast