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After a soggy weekend in Tampa Bay, expect more rain during Monday morning commute

 
John Argyriadis and Bill Roussos of Lakeland didn’t let rain dampen their fishing plans Sunday as they launched their boat at Cockroach Bay in Ruskin. Most of the bay area will likely get several more inches of rain early this week.
John Argyriadis and Bill Roussos of Lakeland didn’t let rain dampen their fishing plans Sunday as they launched their boat at Cockroach Bay in Ruskin. Most of the bay area will likely get several more inches of rain early this week.
Published Aug. 8, 2016

Monday morning commutes in Tampa Bay will have a serious case of the, well, Mondays as the area's soggy weekend weather continues.

A low-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to stick around until Wednesday, dumping rain on the Gulf Coast and Panhandle, said 10Weather meteorologist Kate Wentzel.

"With this setup, what we typically see are waves of rain, on-and-off showers and more rain than storms," she said.

[10Weather WTSP forecast | Tap to enlarge]

A flood watch is in effect through Tuesday afternoon for Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Levy counties. Those areas could pick up 6 to 10 inches of rain through Wednesday, with as much as 15 inches in some isolated spots, she said. Less rainfall is expected farther south, although coastal areas could see 5 inches or more.

Daytime temperatures will reach the mid 80s because of cloud coverage, she said. They should return to around 90 degrees during the day when the weather passes.

The worst weather from this system has hit during the first half of the day instead of a typical summer pattern in which storms build in the afternoon, Wentzel said.

The area of low pressure is along the Big Bend region, where the majority of rain has come down, said Rodney Wynn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The highest reported rainfall has been in Holiday, where about 8 inches fell over the weekend.

Weather like this comes at least once every summer, Wynn said. He compared it to a stalled system that drenched Hillsborough and Pasco counties last summer, although this system isn't expected to last as long.

"It is the wet season, it is summertime," he said, "so anytime the flow sets up like this, you get prone for heavy amounts of rainfall."

Contact Kathryn Varn at (727) 893-8913 or kvarn@tampabay.com. Follow @kathrynvarn.