Tropical wave to bring flooding rain to Florida, Alabama

There was a lot of flash flooding around the eastern U.S., from Florida to Washington D.C. Thursday, where record rainfall fell.

Some areas in Florida and Virginia got more than 5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours, which caused flash flooding. A record of almost 3 inches of rain fell in D.C., prompting water rescues in the city.

The flooding rain is done in D.C., but more heavy tropical rainfall is expected in Florida and the eastern Gulf Coast, that’s why there is a flood watch issued from the Tampa Bay area down to Fort Myers, Florida, for this weekend.

A tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico could bring from 2 to as much as 6 inches of rain over the weekend from Florida to southern Alabama, where flooding will be possible.

Speaking of tropics, they are very active Friday. Two systems near the U.S. and in the Gulf could become tropical cyclones in the next few days.

Four separate tropical systems are moving through the rest of the Atlantic Ocean.

One of the systems is Tropical Storm Paulette, which is expected to become a hurricane and could slam into Bermuda early next week as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph.

Out west, the August Complex Fire is now the largest wildfire in California’s history and it continues to burn. It is now 746,607 acres and is just 25% contained.

Hundreds of other wildfires are burning in the West from Washington down to Arizona.

The good news, is that overall winds are forecast to be calmer Friday.

The bad news, a lot of smoke is being ejected from these fires into the atmosphere, this is producing horrible air quality in Washington, Oregon and California.

All of Oregon and Washington are under the air quality alerts.