Today the Suncoast shifts weather patterns

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - The high-pressure ridge that was located to our north and provided us with a northeast wind will fade, and become less of an influence on our forecast. For the past few days, our winds have encouraged stronger storms to form inland and drift west as they died out. Today a new center of high pressure will develop that will define the forecast into the weekend.

The new area of high pressure will build to our west in the Gulf of Mexico in response to a trough of low-pressure building in the Deep South. Its position will slowly shift our winds from northeast to west by later tonight or early tomorrow. This simple shift will launch another weather pattern for the Suncoast where coastal showers are likely in the morning, which move inland in the afternoon. Additionally, moisture that was lacking and therefore keeping us dry yesterday, will return to the Suncoast today. This will help increase our rain chances in the days ahead.

A bit of upper air energy will swing across the state and elevate the rain chance Thursday. The timing of the storms will remain the same. We will have coastal morning storms moving inland in the afternoon and toward the east coast in the afternoon, but the number of storms will be higher.

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