Heavy rain and localized flooding is possible across portions of central and south Florida Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Humid westerly winds from roughly the Interstate 4 corridor south are expected to result in active sea breeze thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon. Torrential rain from these storms are likely to be in the Orlando area until about 3 o’clock, before then spreading to the Space Coast between 3 and 5 pm. Additional storms from the Gulf sea breeze and Lake Okeechobee may affect areas near Vero Beach and Fort Pierce between 4 and 7 pm. The West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami areas have an increasing chance of thunderstorms between 6 and 10 pm as the Gulf coast sea breeze finally meets the Atlantic coast sea breeze.

Thanks to the very high moisture content in the air (even by Florida standards), any of the thunderstorms are capable of flash flooding, particularly in urban areas. For this reason, NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center has issued a “marginal risk” for flash flooding from about I-4 southward through Tuesday evening.

In anticipation of more heavy rain later this week, the National Weather Service in Tampa has issued a Flood Watch until Friday morning from Cedar Key south to the Fort Myers. The watch includes the Tampa/St. Petersburg metropolitan area, Lakeland, Sarasota, Brandenton, and The Villages. Saturated soils from a wet summer and periodic heavy rainfall over the coming days are likely to contribute to street flooding.