A cold front is heading to Florida. How chilly and rainy will the weekend get?
Enjoy some comfy, seasonal weather for a few days — something to be thankful for, a week ahead of Thanksgiving. Then bring out the comforters.
A cold front is on the way that, on Friday morning, will bring temperatures down to the mid- to low 50s around interior South Florida, Lake Okeechobee and Tampa Bay and Bradenton areas, said meteorologist George Rizzuto of the National Weather Service in Miami. Miami’s coastal areas will be a little warmer, he said, with the mid- to upper 60s.
The real cold will be up in the state’s two major college towns on Friday and into the weekend, with lows in the upper 30s in Tallahassee and low 40s in Gainesville.
The Keys, as usual, will be warmer, with lows in the low 70s. Orlando will dip to the mid-50s Friday into Saturday, so take note if you’re heading to Walt Disney World or Universal.
“Today we are getting a cold front, technically, but it’s not really going to cool us down significantly,” Rizzuto told the Miami Herald Wednesday.
Highs were in the 80s Wednesday, still a bit humid, and sunny. By Thursday into Friday, rain chances creep up from 20% to 40% and carry “slightly cooler temperatures than what we’ve been seeing,” Rizzuto said. “We won’t be seeing those high 80s anymore. But this weekend we’ll see a lot cooler temperatures.”
As for rain, Sunday’s 50% is the highest chance. Some rain may herald the arrival of the cold front but it’s not going to be a significant bump up, Rizzuto said.
The kind of fronts that have been coming have been kind of weak, the forecaster said.
“When they come through, they kind of dry out by the time they make it here. So for Friday, we have pretty low chance of rain — just about a 20 to 30% chance of rain near the east coast. Saturday, after that comes through, it’ll uptick a little bit to between 30 and 40% with the highest along the east coast,” he said.
So expect isolated to scattered showers and maybe a thunderstorm, Rizzuto said.
What about Thanksgiving? That forecast, just like your meal, isn’t ready yet.
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 12:46 PM.
