{"id":173214,"date":"2026-02-28T22:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/173214\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T22:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:52:17","slug":"rain-and-strong-thunderstorms-target-central-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/173214\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain and strong thunderstorms target Central Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Rain is expected to continue across Central Florida for much of Saturday, with strong to severe storms possible south of Orlando during the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The weather is being driven by a front that is currently stalled just north of the area. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">While the front is expected to trigger more active weather as it moves south, rainfall totals have generally remained under half an inch for the vast majority of the region so far.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/ZAL6GTWBQBFG3M2BX46WNEF7BQ.png\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 jibCgM image-metadata\">Strong to severe storms possible Saturday in parts of Central Florida <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The potential for thunderstorms will increase as the front begins to move further south on Saturday afternoon. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The strongest of these storms is expected to produce wind gusts between 40 and 50 mph, frequent lightning, and pockets of heavy rain. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The severe weather threat is expected to diminish by about 7 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Conditions will shift on Sunday as the front passes through Florida. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">While the atmosphere will begin to stabilize, a few isolated showers are expected to remain in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Local temperatures will remain largely unaffected by the arrival of the cold front. Highs are forecast to hover around 80 degrees for each of the next few days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Intermittent rain chances are expected to return to the region beginning on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772319137_49_APP DOWNLOAD LOCAL_1541693885678.jpg_13622062_ver1.0.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Rain is expected to continue across Central Florida for much of Saturday, with strong to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2652,7286,5083,28,30,29,1975,82239,634,5089,17813,115,82238,139,32389,28374,15447,1045,3752],"class_list":{"0":"post-173214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-central_florida","9":"tag-cocoa","10":"tag-cocoa_beach","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-kissimmee","15":"tag-lake_okeechobee","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-melbourne","18":"tag-mimms","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-northern_marion_county","21":"tag-orlando","22":"tag-palm_bay","23":"tag-sam","24":"tag-titusville","25":"tag-video","26":"tag-viera"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}