Cookouts, baseball games and trips to the beach are expected to be soggy this Memorial Day weekend as meteorologists keep an eye on a low pressure system entering the Gulf of Mexico that may dump significant rain on the Florida panhandle and across the southeastern United States.
As of Wednesday morning the National Hurricane Center had the storm labeled as 'Invest 90L', which means the center is investigating and watching the low pressure system.
Escambia County Emergency Management Director David Adams said it was still too early to make any predictions, noting the National Weather Service was scheduled to announce an update late Wednesday afternoon.
“We're supposed to have an official update this afternoon,” Adams said Wednesday. “But we can expect heavy rains this weekend.”
Adams said early forecasts call for rains in the area of 3 to 5 inches and heavier in some areas, with steady rains scheduled to begin Saturday morning and continue through the weekend.
How much rain will depend on whether or not the storm develops beyond a low pressure system to become either a tropical depression or a tropical storm.
Adams said Wednesday that the system has a 60 percent chance of developing into a tropical storm.
“It's possible,” he said. “Right now different models are showing different things.”
With Hurricane season officially beginning June 1, Invest 90L is the first Atlantic storm of 2018.
“It's something you need to keep a watch on,” Adams said. “It will definitely affect our creeks and rivers and could cause some flooding.”
