TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – After a breezy and at times stormy finish to the work week today, we’ve got more of the same on the way for the weekend.

Scattered showers and storms produced some wind gusts in excess of 40 MPH in spots this afternoon. The rain will continue to drift to the west and eventually offshore during the evening hours with most of it wrapping up by sunset.

Expect breezy conditions over the weekend as we are essentially squeezed between high pressure to our east and an intensifying Hurricane Ida to our west out in the Gulf Of Mexico. Ida is expected to strike the Louisiana Gulf Coast as a dangerous major hurricane (CAT 3+) Sunday evening. Watch out for dangerous rip current conditions at our Tampa Bay beaches this weekend along with some choppy conditions for boating. Otherwise, we’re not expecting any direct impacts from Hurricane Ida locally.

Look for skies to eventually turn partly cloudy tonight as the showers wind down. Overnight low temperatures will stay mild only falling into the middle and upper 70s.

The breezy east wind will push a scattered coverage of afternoon showers and thunderstorms from inland areas back to the coast during the afternoon and early evening both Saturday and Sunday. The overall rain chance for both of the weekend days is 40%.

Slightly drier air moving in aloft will cut our rain chances slightly for early next week.