Week begins with fall-like weather but tropical moisture to bring heavy rain to Central Florida: here's when

ORLANDO, Fla. - We have one more day of beautiful weather in Central Florida before a storm system brings several rounds of rain mid-week. The best rain chances begin late Wednesday – and stick around through Saturday.

Between 2" and 4" of rain could fall – most north of Orlando. In the Florida Panhandle, those regions could see over 6" of rain total.

As we've been tracking since last week, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a system in the Gulf of Mexico that could become a tropical system, though right now the chances of that happening are low (20%).

That said, there is too much wind shear aloft to allow even a weak tropical system to really get going, so it's not much of a concern other than to watch it in case anything unexpected happens. This will most likely only be a rain event, and even if a tropical depression does form, it would only enhance rain chances but not represent much of a wind event.

After the rain, we should see the beautiful weather return with lows in the 50s and 60s, and highs in the 70s and low 80s. 

‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse

Unfortunately, the timing of all this rain isn't ideal for the approaching annular solar eclipse, which happens Saturday afternoon. We're likely to be socked in by the clouds. That said, when it peaks around 1:30pm, it may look like early evening, as the sun will be reduced to 40% solar radiation, with 60% shaded by the moon.

 It might also get a few degrees cooler than otherwise, between 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.