An ‘abnormally wet’ week is expected with storms and risk of flash floods in South Florida

South Floridians are in for a rainy week that forecasters warn could bring flash floods, breaking the unusually warm and dry spell that endured last month.

Starting on Monday night and into Tuesday, rain chances are ramping up to 90% across the region and will stay between 80% and 100% until at least Thursday, with chances for scattered storms leaking into Friday and even Saturday, too.

“The overall pattern is just going to be pretty widespread showers and thunderstorms each day this week,” said Luke Culver, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. “The key thing to know is that because of how moist this air mass is, any showers and thunderstorms could produce very heavy rainfall in a very short amount of time, potentially leading to flash flooding.”

Flash flooding happens when an area gets inundated with several inches of rain in an hour or less.

This leads to “significant ponding on roads or potentially road closures or the inability to drive on roads, potentially even starting to impact homes,” Culver said.

Urban areas are at a greater risk of flash flooding because they are unable to absorb as much rainfall as more rural areas. But beyond that, narrowing down specific urban areas in South Florida that may be at a greater risk is challenging because “it’s so highly dependent on the vulnerability of every location,” Culver said.

“If (an area) gets repeated rounds of heavy rainfall, that’s really where you’re going to have the most concern,” he said, adding: “If you get significant rainfall, like 6 inches or more in a short amount of time pretty much anywhere, no matter how vulnerable, it’s going to have some kind of impact.”

Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties are expected to get between 2.5 to up to 6 inches of rain through Wednesday night.

These wet conditions are expected to improve over the weekend and into early next week, Culver said.

But for now, “the trickiest thing with this is, say for instance, tomorrow, one area could get hit with a storm or several rounds of storms and quickly get 4 to 6 inches of rain and have potential for flash flooding and then get hit again later on that day, but then get not get hit really again the rest of the week.”

The rain will bring cloudy conditions and a slight cooldown in temperatures from last week when “feels-like” temperatures hit as high as 110. High temperatures this week will stay between mid- to- upper-80s with lows in the upper-70s.

“Let’s say a shower or thunderstorm just moved through your area. You’re definitely going to see a cooldown,” Culver said.

Storms also bring in humidity, which could make the area feel like a “swamp,” Culver said, but heat is not as much of a concern.

Unlike May, which was abnormally warm and dry, according to the National Weather Service, these next few days will be “abnormally wet,” Culver said. Even though June typically sees a lot of thunderstorms, this week of scattered showers is a “unique pattern.”

Culver advised people to have a way to be notified of any weather warnings in their area.