If you live in Sarasota or Manatee County, you know the drill by now. Late August means afternoon thunderstorms. But this weekend, the rain is stepping it up a notch. After a fairly tame Tuesday and Wednesday with only a 30% chance of showers, deep tropical moisture arrives Thursday and settles in through the weekend. The wettest day looks like Saturday, with a 60% chance of storms mainly between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Some of those storms could drop two to three inches of rain in a short period, so localized flooding is possible in our usual trouble spots.
For boaters, Tuesday is the best day to get out on the water, with just a 20% chance of a morning shower and light southwest winds. The heat index will still push toward 100 degrees before the rain cools things down, so it’s going to feel steamy. The good news in all of this? Two tropical systems are being watched in the Atlantic right now, but neither will affect the Suncoast. So we’re just dealing with garden-variety summer weather, just a bit more of it than usual.
If you’ve got weekend plans, the advice from local meteorologists is simple: schedule outdoor activities for the morning through early afternoon. Hit the beach early, get your golf round in before lunch, take the kayak out at sunrise. Then plan for indoor afternoons, maybe a matinee at the Ringling or a lazy afternoon at home. Rain chances also linger into Monday, so keep an eye on the sky as you head back to work. How do you typically handle a rainy weekend forecast? Let us know in the comments.
