Good morning; hope your Friday is off to a great start! The driest day yet this week is upon us as we start to feel the effects of high pressure building in the upper levels of the atmosphere and a building low pressure area out in the Atlantic. Between the two is the best place to be this weekend and this is exactly where we in southwest Florida will find ourselves! For today, the easterly breeze should be strong enough to pin the afternoon Gulf breeze to the coast. There might be just enough moisture around for a few late day showers or storms (very dry air in place aloft, so it will be a while before storms can form), however, most places will stay dry. It's hot this afternoon with highs in the 90's everywhere except right at the beaches where we'll stay in the upper 80's.
For the weekend, still hot and mainly dry tomorrow; by Sunday, it should be mostly sunny with highs again in the lower 90's as we feel the driest air between the developing Atlantic low and the eastern US ridge. This should carry into Monday as well before the forecast becomes a bit more tricky next week with respect to that developing ocean low. Whether it becomes a subtropical storm or not (I blogged about this yesterday and will again later this morning), how close it gets to the east coast will dictate our rain chances. The farther away it stays, the drier we are; the closer it gets, the better the chance of rain. Right now, it looks like it only will get close enough to bring isolated storm chances to the area (especially inland) Tuesday - Thursday.. however, if an upper level disturbance moving well to the north of it can't give it a firm enough tug early next week, it would have a chance to get closer to SWFL and linger into the first part of the Memorial Day weekend.
Either way, plan on dry weather sticking around through Monday with a slight increase in the chance of showers and storms by Tuesday. With a few more clouds, temps will be a bit cooler next week.
Here is today's forecast:
Naples Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 90
Bonita Springs Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 92
Fort Myers Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 92
Cape Coral Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 91
Port Charlotte Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 90
Hendry Co. Partly Cloudy; High 91
Glades Co. Partly Cloudy; High 89
DeSoto Co. Partly Cloudy; High 90
Bonita Springs Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 92
Fort Myers Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 92
Cape Coral Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 91
Port Charlotte Partly Cloudy Mainly Dry; High 90
Hendry Co. Partly Cloudy; High 91
Glades Co. Partly Cloudy; High 89
DeSoto Co. Partly Cloudy; High 90
Brian
