Tampa Bay area could see rain this weekend due to non-tropical formation

A non-tropical area of low pressure is expected to form along Florida’s east coast late this week.

The front could develop into a subtropical system this weekend while it moves north, but current chances are low, according to the National Hurricane Center. Odds for development hover around 30% over the next week.

Regardless of development, the system is likely to bring “gusty winds, heavy rain and high surf conditions” to the coastal Carolinas and Virginia this weekend, according to forecasters.

Keily Delerme, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office, said the area will likely be on the dry side of the front.

This means Florida’s east coast would see heavy rainfall, while low pressure would push drier air into the Tampa Bay area, Delerme said.

Current rainfall predictions show the area could receive about 1 inch of rainfall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“For us in the Tampa area, we would have to wait and see what develops,” Delerme said.

It’s also unlikely the front would drop local temperatures significantly.

“It wouldn’t be necessarily like a cool down for the fall or anything like that,” Delerme said.

Meanwhile, surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are returning to abnormally hot levels after a brief cool period caused by hurricanes Franklin, Lee and Margot.

Forecasters are also keeping an eye on a tropical wave moving off the coast of Africa that could become a tropical depression late this week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

This wave has a 70% of forming over the next week and is predicted to head northwest, avoiding the Caribbean islands.

Hurricane Nigel is now the sixth hurricane to form in the Atlantic this season. Forecasters expect the storm to track northeast, away from North America.