FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The low-pressure system that is forecast to become Tropical Storm Alex is bringing strong winds, rain and flooding to northwestern portions of the Bahamas as it moves over the Atlantic Saturday evening.
Forecasters expect the disturbance to become a tropical or subtropical storm Saturday night or Sunday.
The storm’s winds strengthened slightly after it moved offshore just before 5 p.m. The northwestern Bahamas are under a tropical storm warning.
The tropical storm warning was lifted for South Florida earlier Saturday afternoon, and was discontinued for the entire east coast by 5 p.m., as the system’s maximum windspeed ticked upward to 45 mph.
The last of the “heavy” rainbands passed over South Florida, though heavy rainfall and flooding was expected to linger through the afternoon.
South Florida appears to have fared relatively well, according to Randy Smith, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, considering some areas received double-digit rainfall totals.
“From the Water Management District perspective, as far as the regional canals and what not, we don’t have any issues we’re reporting,” Smith said. “Street flooding, we get them in summer thunderstorms. That’s just part of it down here.
“But we don’t have any reports of residential flooding or business flooding, for the most part, which is really good news.”
And Sunday looks to get back to the normal summertime weather pattern with highs in the upper 80s or low 90s.
“[Sunday] is not going to be all that bad of a day,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Adam Douty. “You should start out with a good bit of sunshine, and then heading into the afternoon you’ll probably see some clouds popping up. You might get a few spotty thunderstorms across the interior, kind of like a typical day.
“But it’s probably not going to be all that bad of a day.”
The swirl of violent weather expected to form Tropical Storm Alex began crossing South Florida Saturday morning, keeping most residents indoors and stranding drivers attempting to plow through flooded streets.
The storm continued to produce maximum winds of 40 mph, putting it just over the threshold for tropical storm strength, although its lack of a closed circulation prevented it from being designated one.
Up to 15 inches of rain may fall in parts of South Florida through Saturday, as the large and sloppy clump of clouds rolls over across the state.
Many areas in Broward and Palm Beach counties got about 6 inches of rain, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Jake Sojda, with some areas in Fort Lauderdale getting between 8 and 9 inches. Most of the areas that reached double-digit rainfall totals were along the east coast in Miami-Dade County, Sojda said.
The tropical storm is expected to form only after the system has passed over South Florida and emerged onto the Atlantic Ocean. But its unusually large size, with tropical-force winds extending up to 210 miles east of its center, means that South Florida is in for a long day of heavy rain and high winds.
A sustained wind of 46 mph and a gust of 56 mph were reported offshore of Miami, according to the 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center.
Flights by Hurricane Hunter aircraft could not find a well-defined center, indicating the disturbance had not developed the closed wind circulation necessary for designation as the first tropical storm of the 2022 season.
“There’s no closed low pressure area yet, and that’s what we’re waiting on,” Douty said . “And now that it’s pretty much over land that’s not going to happen until it gets off into the Atlantic.”
But flood waters made driving dangerous across South Florida, with high water slowing drivers on I-95 in Miami, stranding cars downtown and leading to warnings to stay off the road.
The Miami Fire-Rescue Department said it was responding to “multiple calls of cars stuck in the water.” The Hallandale Beach Police Department urged residents to stay home until the danger passed.
“Severe flooding in Hallandale Beach!” the Hallandale Beach Police Department said in a 5:55 a.m. tweet “Residents if you can stay home please do not go out, most roadways are flooded! Do not risk your safety or your vehicles!”
Several crashes were reported on I-95, as drivers attempted to get through the squally weather, from northern Palm Beach County, where a tractor-trailer crash blocked three lanes, to West Palm Beach, where another crash blocked three lanes, to Miami, where a crash blocked two lanes.
Although South Florida was awash in cancellations and postponements Saturday, some enterprises soldiered on. The city of Hollywood’s garbage collection went forward, with the city tweeting “Sanitation services are still taking place, however crews are running a bit behind as you can imagine.”
The storms caused scattered power outages but nothing like the massive shutdowns that come with hurricanes. By 3 p.m. Saturday, there were 376 outages in Broward County, 226 in Palm Beach County and 2,687 in Miami-Dade County, according to Florida Power & Light Co.
Wind shear and dry air have prevented the formation of a deep, well-defined rotating structure.
“In other words,” the hurricane center said, " the system has gone the wrong way in becoming a tropical cyclone.”
By Friday night, the majority of southeast Florida had already seen 2 to 3 inches of rain, the National Weather Service said, with as much as 6 inches over parts of western Collier County, including the Marco Island and Naples areas.
Fort Lauderdale is expected to get an additional 5.5 to 9 inches by Saturday night, and Miami will see between 3 and 7 additional inches of rain. West Palm Beach could get between 4 and 8 additional inches.
All of South Florida remains under a flood watch through Sunday morning, the National Weather Service Miami said.
In Miami-Dade County, the Biscayne Bay shoreline may see storm surges of 1 to 2 feet above ground about the time of high tide, according to the National Weather Service’s update.
The hurricane center predicted the system’s wind speeds will reach a maximum of 50 mph by Sunday evening.
The South Florida Water Management District said the key to managing the rainfall was preparation.
The SFWMD manages water from Orlando to the Florida Keys, and had been lowering canal levels in South Florida for days in preparation of a possible onslaught of rain.
“We’re doing the same thing on the southwest coast as we are in Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade [counties],” Smith said.
South Florida operated about 77 pump stations to handle the excess water, and will likely continue to run them for a few more days. Smith said that’s typical.
“For a big storm like this, yes,” he said. “And when I say ‘big’ storm, it’s big as far as significant rainfall. The winds really didn’t materialize into much at all and certainly didn’t have any effects on our operations.”
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