Expect rain and storms as Gulf storm system moves in tonight and continues into Monday

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ORLANDO, Fla. – We’ve already seen a few stray severe thunderstorms fire up over the Florida panhandle during the day today.

Northern Floridians should continue to keep a close eye out on any National Weather Service alerts that may hit their phones as we go past sunset and into the early morning hours of Monday. Then around sunrise, we here in Central Florida will start to feel the effects of this low latitude storm system.

On the water vapor this evening, you can clearly see where our parent system is currently located. The rustic shades of colors along its south and eastern halves indicate the jet stream digging into the storm itself, helping to spread the moisture and rainfall well to the east of its current position (Copyright WKMG 2025)

It’s a ragged area of cyclonic spin currently situated over the Dixie Alley region of the southern U.S. Both the polar front jet up north and a prevalent band of the subtropical jet are helping to not only ramp this feature up but really stretch it out like an accordion over the southeast and Mid-Atlantic.

We’re sitting pretty and warm here in central Florida tonight, however lots of lightning and scattered showers/storms are off our west coast or impacting the panhandle – Big Bend regions (Copyright WKMG 2025)

Late last night we had some preliminary showers and storms rolling ashore near the Tampa Bay area and further north as a result of how expansive the reach of this system is.

Here is a breakdown of general timing, thinking, and threats associated with the low pressure system expected to slide across our area (Copyright WKMG 2025)

Tonight, especially closer to midnight and the first few hours of your Monday we’ll see the greatest shot at severe weather for northern Florida. Some of this according to Storm Prediction Center could come down as far south as Alachua and Marion counties, maybe scraping the upper borders of Lake and Sumter.

Then we see the chance for rain and thunder transition eastward towards Putnam, Flagler, and Volusia counties before sun up.

When we’re headed out the door tomorrow morning whether it be for work, errands, the gym, or getting the kids to school, Central Florida will be under the gun for the full effects this low pressure system has to offer.

Tomorrow you can see widespread chances for rain. It will come through in linear fashion, but a lot of us will get a nice dose of rainfall during the first half of the day (Copyright WKMG 2025)

Our computer models are singing in unison now which is great news for us forecasters. We’re pinpointing the arrival of a band of heavier rainfall and potential thunderstorms to our western shores around 6-7 a.m. Then by late morning, early afternoon it’ll be right on top of the Orlando metro area. Finally, we expect clearing to occur no later than 3-4 p.m.

The day after tomorrow and into Wednesday the cooler, drier air being tugged south by this low pressure will sweep across Florida and help bring our high temperatures down at least 10-12 degrees cooler than what we saw today. I know on my way into the News 6 today, my dashboard thermometer read a whopping 88 degrees headed north on I-4!

After the morning rains tomorrow, we’ll start to warm back up but a beautiful week is in store for central Florida. We’re watching what occurs over the Plains and pinpointing how it may affect our weather next weekend (Copyright WKMG 2025)

Stay tuned as we prepare to start tracking yet another prolific severe weather maker over the Plains that could influence our weather here by the end of next weekend.