The National Hurricane Center has started to issue watches specifically for parts of South Florida through the West Florida coast this Friday morning. Potential Tropical Cyclone 4 officially was labeled at 11:00 AM on Friday. The label of Potential Tropical Cyclone, or PTC, allows the National Hurricane Center to issue warnings and watches. This is done to systems that are not well organized but close enough to land to cause problems soon.
This system continues to be very disorganized it is traveling over Cuba today through the early morning hours on Saturday. Once this system emerges over the Florida Straits, it's expected to become better organized and have a well-defined circulation center. By Saturday evening, the National Hurricane Center expects this system to officially be tropical storm status, officially becoming Debby.
It’s going to be a washout weekend for much of Florida. The threat of flash floods will be high throughout the weekend. Heavy rain bands will be coming onto South Florida late Friday night and these will be traveling to the north, affecting Central and North Florida on Saturday. South Florida will continue to deal with heavy periods of showers and thunderstorms on Saturday. The worst day of the weekend, generally speaking for the state, will be Sunday. As the system approaches the central west coast, there will be more intense thunderstorm activity over areas that would have received several rounds of showers on Saturday, therefore the ground would be already well saturated, and flooding would become more of a threat.
What does it mean for South Carolina?
The storms that will happen this weekend will be courtesy of a stalled frontal boundary in combination with the day's heating. Heavy rainfall is possible, this could lead to some flooding in some areas.
High rainfall for South Carolinas, mainly along the eastern portion.
Some impacts related to future Debby will be starting late on Sunday as some rain bands advance over South Carolina. There is uncertainty about the track this system will take. But keep in mind that heavy rainfall risk will continue to be possible through the beginning of next week as the system is forecast to possibly reemerge over water and hug the coast of South Carolina. There is the potential for this to be a high rainfall event and considering we will have heavy rain before this event, flooding could develop rapidly. Beach and marine conditions will be dangerous so make sure to postpone any beach plans you may have.
There could still be shifts in the track which could improve or worsen the impacts across the Midlands and Upstate. The coast could receive between 4 and 7 inches of rain through late next week. But there could be some embedded spots with higher amounts. We will bring you updates throughout the weekend and fine-tune the details for the state.