Storms

Record heat continues for many across Florida. The forecast shows some breaks, with the chance for more storms to build, but more heat returns for Memorial Day.

Severe storms are forecast to end the weekend and start the week. Make sure to have at least three ways of receiving weather alerts. Damaging winds, large hail, and an isolated tornado are possible.

As the Atlantic Ocean shows signs of heating up, potentially fueling damaging hurricanes, a former state and national disaster chief warned of working-class Floridians being priced out of communities in post-storm rebuilding.

The surprise "microburst" weather event— uncommon in the Florida Keys — left significant tree damage in a Plantation Key neighborhood that took several days to clean up. “I lived here all my life and I’ve never seen anything like it," said one resident.

The sheriff's office in Leon County, Florida, said a falling tree killed a woman inside her family's home in the Tallahassee area. Some of the strongest storms early Friday rolled through Tallahassee, toppling trees across the state's capital city.

The 18-by-12-foot reef will be installed near the coast around St. Thomas and is expected to be completed by July.

The National Weather Service says the tornado, with winds of 80 mph, damaged the roof of an apartment building. The storms also produced reported tornadoes and damage in the Florida Panhandle.

Florida state officials agreed to replace thousands of yards of sand on Key Biscayne after a storm washed part of the beach out to sea earlier this month.

They likely had just hatched and blew in with the strong onshore winds recently, a biologist said.

The National Weather Service says up to 25 inches of rain fell near Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. The airport is expected to reopen Friday morning. The rains started Monday, with the heaviest downpours coming Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Nearly a foot of rain fell in a matter of hours in Fort Lauderdale – causing widespread flooding, the closure of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the suspension of high-speed commuter rail service for the Broward County region.

Since late December, a series of storms had dropped a year's worth of rain in just a few weeks, causing widespread floods and power outages. At least 19 people have died as a result of the storms.