/Tropical Storm Eta making landfall in Cuba, heads towards Southern Florida

Tropical Storm Eta making landfall in Cuba, heads towards Southern Florida

Eta is around 300 miles south of Miami, Florida.

Eta is around 300 miles south of Miami, Florida, and is moving northeast at 12 mph.

Some of the outer bands of Eta containing very heavy rainfall are already reaching southern Florida and will continue to do so today.

On the forecast track, Eta will continue to track across Cuba today and move into the Florida straits later this morning.

Eta will then turn and move near the Florida Keys later tonight and emerge in the southern Gulf of Mexico by late Monday and Tuesday.

Rainfall continues to be the greatest risk with Eta, however, with locally over 2 feet of rain possible in parts of Cuba.

Locally, up to 14 inches of rain will be possible in the Bahamas and parts of Florida could see well over a foot of rain. In some cases, this will be enough to cause life threatening flash flooding.

Urban flooding is especially a concern in the more population dense areas of southern Florida but it is important to note that Southern Florida is capable of absorbing a good amount of rainfall.

However, October was a very wet month for Southern Florida so that combined with the likelihood of intense precipitation could lead to flash flooding, especially in the more urban areas in the Miami metropolitan area.

An additional concern will be the storm surge. Storm surges locally of up to 4 feet will be possible in parts of southern Florida in the storm Surge prone areas.

Additionally, there could possibly be tornadoes in Southern Florida as Eta moves through the region over the next 48 hours.

Once Eta makes it into the Gulf of Mexico, Eta will begin to slow down and its direction then becomes unclear.

Forecast models this morning actually have Eta stalling in the Gulf Of Mexico through much of the upcoming week.

While the exact location and direction of Eta and its eventual stall remain unclear, there is potential that cold fronts moving across parts of the eastern U.S. could draw tropical moisture from Eta and create a potential for flash flooding in some spots along the East Coast later this week.

In the West, a storm system is beginning to move across part of the country and is bringing snow, rain and some gusty winds.

Some of the most organized areas of snow this morning are in parts of Montana and the Rocky mountains where locally up to 3 feet is expected through Tuesday.

This organizing storm system and its associated dip in the jet stream is expected to bring wind gusts locally over 50 mph from parts of California all the way Wisconsin as wind gusts could be exacerbated in the higher terrains of the intermountain west.

Elsewhere, Los Angeles received 0.11 inches of rain on Saturday, ending a 172-day streak of no rain which is its 7th longest streak in history.

Las Vegas did not receive measurable rain and has smashed their record for longest dry streak already with 202 days since their last rainfall though the region might have an opportunity to pick up rainfall today.

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