Eye on the Tropics

TIMELINE: Tropical disturbance to bring heavy rains to parts of Florida through Saturday

ORLANDO, Fla. — A tropical disturbance is forecast to bring heavy rains to Central Florida this weekend.

Read live updates below.

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11 p.m. update:

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring “Potential Tropical Cyclone One” as it continues its slow, unorganized move toward South Florida on Friday evening.

PTC1 was unable to strengthen into a named tropical storm on Friday as the storm system was met with dry air and wind shear to the north.

PTC1 is still forecast to bring heavy squally rain bands over South Florida on Saturday.

The center of the storm is forecast to nearly make landfall off the coast of South Florida by 8 a.m. Saturday.

By 8 p.m. Saturday, the storm should be far from Florida’s east coast and moving well into the Atlantic Ocean.

PTC1 is currently moving northeast at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds around 40 mph.

Channel 9 will have continuing coverage of the storm and its impacts on Central Florida on Eyewitness News.

6:30 p.m. update:

Storm gusts in and around Key West have reached up to 51 mph.

Tropical storm warnings have also been expanded to the waters Volusia County as far north as Daytona Beach.

5 p.m. update:

The National Hurricane Center said Potential Tropical Cyclone One is forecast to become a tropical storm.

The storm system is expected to impact Florida on Saturday.

There is still no name to the storm, but it is expected to bring rain and squalls to Florida on Saturday.

The center of the storm is moving northeast at 7 mph with maximum sustained winds around 40 mph.

Channel 9 will continue to monitor the storm and give updates on Eyewitness News.

11 a.m. update:

Heavy rain is spreading across western Cuba and southern Florida from a tropical disturbance, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm should move across the Gulf of Mexico on Friday night.

Meteorologists said they still expect the storm to develop a well-defined center and become a tropical storm on Friday.

The storm’s winds have reached 40 mph.

The disturbance has a 90% chance of forming.

If it forms, it will become the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

8 a.m. update:

The disturbance is moving slowly over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.

The storm is forecast to move across the southeastern Gulf of Mexico through Friday tonight, across the southern and central portions of the Florida Peninsula on Saturday, and then over the southwestern Atlantic north of the northwestern Bahamas Saturday afternoon through Sunday, the NHC said.

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Data from hurricane hunters showed the storm’s winds are near 40 mph.

The system is expected to develop a well-defined center and become a tropical storm on Friday.

5 a.m. update:

Hurricane hunters found that the disturbance near the Gulf of Mexico is producing tropical-storm-force winds.

New tropical storm warnings have been issued for Florida, Cuba and the northwestern Bahamas.

The system is expected to become a tropical storm on Friday. The National Hurricane Center said that the storm could slightly strengthen as it approaches Florida.

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Meteorologist Brian Shields said the storm is not well defined. “It has tropical-storm-force winds but not a closed circulation. Wind shear is hammering it, which is good,” he said.

The worst weather of the system will be in South Florida.

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Some rain bands will get into our southern and coastal zones.

There is an isolated tornado threat for Osceola and Brevard counties.

Some streets could flood in the downpours.

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Our northern zones are not expected to get much from the storm.

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Katlyn Brieskorn, WFTV.com

Katlyn Brieskorn is a Digital Assignment Editor at WFTV. She joined Channel 9 in July 2019.