3 weeks Ago By Shira Moolten
An “unseasonably” hot Saturday is in store for all of South Florida just a week and a day before the beginning of fall, forecasters say. The entire region is under an excessive heat warning until 6 p.m.
, with peak “feels-like” temperatures reaching 107 to 113 degrees, a rare occurrence for September and certainly not fall weather. The autumn equinox is next Sunday. The National Weather Service Miami placed Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties at “extreme” risk, the highest level of risk for excessive heat from 8 a.
m. Saturday morning to 8 a.m.
Sunday. “Overall, all indicators point to the risk of heat illness today being high to extreme across all of South Florida,” forecasters wrote just before 9 a.m.
Saturday. Forecasters tend to issue most of their heat warnings in July and August, according to Shawn Bhatti, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Miami. He wasn’t sure if the weather service had ever issued an excessive heat warning in September, but said “it’s very rare to my knowledge.
” Meanwhile, rain and thunderstorms will become increasingly likely as the day goes on. Storms should begin to pick up after about 3 p.m.
, and “strong wind gusts, frequent to excessive lightning, and torrential rainfall are concerns with today`s storms,” forecasters said. A maximum of about 2-3 inches of rainfall is possible in inland and coastal swaths of South Florida this afternoon, with the chance of flooding in east coast metro areas with poor drainage. Sunday will feel similar to Saturday, but likely not reach the level of an excessive heat warning as temperatures should feel a few degrees cooler due to a mid-level ridge moving south.
The weather service will likely issue a heat advisory, Bhatti said. “This may allow for temperatures to cool a couple of degrees resulting in more of a marginal heat advisory setup rather than the “slam dunks” of the last few days ..
. but it will still be unseasonably warm,” forecasters said. The heat should remain through the beginning of next week.
By next weekend, a frontal boundary may leave the area, allowing heat index values to dip below 100 degrees for the first time in “a little while,” Bhatti said, just in time for fall..
