Here's your Tampa area weather forecast for late Thursday, with a preview of conditions through Sunday.

  • Similar pattern for Friday
  • Drier Saturday
  • Wetter Sunday

The pattern changed today, as expected, resulting in a better coverage of clouds and thunderstorms. Any lingering storms will be few, with partly cloudy skies overnight into early Friday morning.

Lows will be a couple degrees lower, mainly in the mid to upper 70s.

Friday will have a very similar pattern, with scattered storms getting their start near coastal areas or in the gulf to begin the day, then slowly propagating and working inland as the afternoon goes along. The storms will be slow movers, resulting in other storms forming from the outflows.

The coverage will again be pretty good at about 50 percent. High temperatures will be in the low to mid 90s.

Any lingering storms will die down Friday night with partly cloudy skies. Lows will be in the mid to upper 70s.

A batch of drier air is moving toward us from the southeast for Saturday so the coverage of storms will go down to 20 or 30 percent. Therefore, expect a really hot, mostly dry day with highs in the mid to upper 90s.

Then things change for Sunday as a passing tropical wave will bring moisture back into our atmosphere, resulting in a much higher coverage of storms that day.

TROPICS

Newly formed Tropical Storm Harvey is located a few hundred miles east of the Windward Islands.  An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft found a circulation earlier today, therefore it was declared a storm. Harvey will not impact Florida or the U.S. as it will move directly westward through the Caribbean.

The Government of France has issued a Tropical Storm Warning for Martinique.

The Government of Barbados has issued a Tropical Storm Warning for Barbados, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines.

The Government of St. Lucia has issued a Tropical Storm Warning for St. Lucia.

The Government of Barbados has issued a Tropical Storm Watch for Dominica.

Shower activity associated with an area of low pressure located about 1200 miles east of the Leeward Islands continues to show signs of organization.  Gradual development of this system is possible during the next day or so while it moves west-northwestward at near 20 mph. After that, upper-level winds are expected to become less conducive for development.

A tropical wave located over the far eastern Atlantic Ocean near the Cabo Verde Islands is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms.  Gradual development of this system is possible during the next several days while it moves westward to west-northwestward at about 15 mph.

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