Happy Saturday, South Florida! We have been monitoring a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico since earlier in the week and as of this morning, the National Hurricane Center began initiating advisories on Tropical Depression 14 in the SW Gulf of Mexico. TD14 is forecast to quickly strengthen as it moves NNE across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Once it becomes a tropical storm (which could be Sunday), it will be named Milton. Satellite imagery shows a large pool of tropical moisture sitting in the Gulf of Mexico and that moisture is headed straight to Florida. But through this weekend, TD 14’s impacts will mainly be felt in Mexico where an additional 4″ of rain will be possible this weekend. Tropical Depression 14 will steadily strengthen in the days to come as it moves East to ENE across the Gulf of Mexico and is forecast to become a hurricane as early as Monday. As all of Florida is all too familiar with, the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico will aid in quick strengthening of this system. Latest forecast track shows ‘future Milton’ approaching the Florida peninsula as a strong category 2 hurricane. A front to the north of the storm will keep the system in the Gulf of Mexico and will ensure that this will be a Florida storm come the middle of next work week. As of 11am Saturday, no watches or warnings had yet been issued. Portions of South Florida have been placed inside TD 14’s cone, however, impacts from this storm will be felt through much of the state and the forecast for South Florida remains very similar. We can still expect a multi-day rain event beginning well before this system even approaches Florida. Rainfall totals along the Gulf coast of FL could reach as high as 10″ while the SE coast of Florida could see anywhere from 4″-8″ of rain. Isolated amount of up to 10″ will be possible through the next 7 days. And as we saw this morning, it won’t take much to cause flooding across South Florida. A Flood Watch may be issued for South Florida this weekend. We can never be too cautious with tropical systems so today might be a good day to restock on any hurricane supplies you might be running low of. Hope you’re able to keep dry this weekend! Erika Delgado – WSVN 7 Meteorologist