Tropical Storm Bret forms in Atlantic

MIAMI Tropical Storm Bret has formed off the northern coast of South America, the National Hurricane Center said.

A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued for the Louisiana Coast in connection to a second system, known as Potential Tropical Cyclone Three, the hurricane center said. The main threat from that cyclone is rainfall, but not much impact will be felt in Southwest Florida.

“It’ll actually be getting farther away from us,” WINK Chief Meteorologist Jim Farrell said. “So today we could say some of the rain that we’re having is from this system, but starting tomorrow, no influence on our weather pattern in general.”

Tropical Storm Bret is expected to skirt the South American coast and fall apart amid heavy wind shear later this week.

“This should dissipate over the southern-central Caribbean in the middle part of the week, and it, too, will not have any significant impact on our weather at all,” Farrell said.

Below is the forecast cone for Potential Tropical Cyclone Three:

Below is the forecast cone for Tropical Storm Bret:

Flood warning

The timeframe of a flood warning issued for the Peace River basin in DeSoto County changed slightly Monday.

The warning period will now stretch from 4 a.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service said.