Good afternoon! Hope everyone had a chance to enjoy today's outstanding mid March weather with plenty of sunshine and highs well into the 70's for most of southwest Florida. Tomorrow should be a little warmer across most of the region as a cold front pushes into the eastern Gulf (usually it's warmest just for a cold front pushes in). That front will lead to increasing clouds tomorrow. Our models at this point are split on rain timing tomorrow.. some of our short range models (we call them the SREFs - short range ensemble forecasts).. are now speeding up the timing of the front and bringing rain in by late tomorrow afternoon while others still hold off the rain chance until sunset or after. I'll get a fresh look at some new forecast models coming up after 8 PM tonight, but for now I'm leaning toward at least a few showers moving into our coastal areas (Lee and Charlotte) by 4-5 PM tomorrow. There is a chance we could see a few storms late tomorrow night into early Sunday as the front comes through... the atmosphere should be unstable enough to allow for that. At this point though, I'm not anticipating anything severe. A stronger wind gust? A possibility.
On average, most of the area will see about a quarter of an inch of rain with the front. Clearing will be slow on Monday and it will be a bit cooler.. with highs in the low 70's. By mid-week, we're rebounding into the upper 70's to near 80 with high pressure moving in -- plenty of sun! Next chance of rain gets here to start the weekend Saturday.
Be sure to check us out on 6 TV tonight at 10 PM and on WINK at 11 (probably a bit later because of basketball). See you then!
Brian
