Early and often rains are hanging tough this evening

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Now we are talking! Classic July evening storms are lingering and lingering and lingering. These downpours with rumbles of thunder are slowly fading into the evening. Most areas should see the rains come to an end before 11 p.m.

These rains have been on occasion, moderate to heavy. Yet, amounts have been under 2". This is a significant amount, but not flooding, as they have been going on now for hours (moderate and longer lasting rains tend to drain much better than sudden downpours.) If still thinking about heading out?

Drive carefully.

This weekend will be drier than today's early and often thunderstorms.

Kicking-off Saturday morning with what could be a fairly spectacular sunrise as lingering high clouds from Friday evening storms will be still be in the skies above us. Best viewing times will be about 20 minutes before sunrise which is at 8:33 a.m.

Hazy sunny skies will lead to some steamy conditions and with light winds, offshore fishing for Red Snapper should be good. Trouble for everyone will be afternoon and evening thunderstorms will return to the skies, with the heaviest and more widespread storms along I-75 (well west of Jacksonville.)

Locally in Jacksonville and the beaches, we will see partly cloudy and toasty warm conditions with highs around 92° and this all before 2 p.m. After 2 p.m.clouds will build to produce a few thundershowers throughout the mid afternoon hours.

Remember, Saturday's thundershowers will be fewer and shorter lasting than what we saw on Friday evening.

Sunday through next Thursday? One word. Hot!

As we see the leftovers of Barry move up into the mid Mississippi River Basin (Arkansas) we will see high pressure develop over us and the will dry us out and pump us up!

Afternoon highs will once again reach into the upper 90s. Starting Monday and lasting until Thursday. As feel-like temperatures these day's will reach near 105°. Ouch...

Each day next week will see a few afternoon thunderstorms and some of these will be very intense producing heavy rains and lots of lightning.