ORLANDO, Fla. – Today you may have caught some rain in your area, if not at least saw some menacing looking clouds on the horizon.
That’s because another cold front is trudging southward, draped across the northern border of Florida and Georgia. Through tonight and into tomorrow that front will find its way into our area, and then get stuck once again.
Alongside this stubborn front, we’ve got elevated coastal winds driving rip current conditions up. So not only will Mother Nature not cooperate for your Sunday, but the waters may be a bit more on the hostile side as well.
Because of all the warmth entrenched across our state, and the lack of a persistent push of cold from up north, the front is likely to lose most of its forward speed Saturday night into the first half of Sunday.
With that being said, a stalled front directly overhead usually means a pretty stark uptick in what we can expect in the rain department.
As early as 4-5 a.m., we’ll begin to see overall rains picking up for our northwest counties.
Because of this front stuck overtop of us, winds will start to relax, especially as moisture builds up overnight so anticipate some dense patches of fog through central Florida. This is especially true for our southern counties such as Polk, Osceola, and Brevard counties.
We can’t rule out some visibility struggles working into lower Sumter, Lake, Orange, and Seminole counties, since this is where the front will wiggle and wobble for the next 12-18 hours.
It will take some time for things to work south into the Greater Orlando area, just because of the nature of the set up – a stationary front – but as we get into the second half of Sunday that’s when the rainy momentum will swing our away.
So all in all, when it comes to planning your day, for the Orlando metro area, attractions, and the bulk of Orange, Seminole, Brevard, Osceola, and Polk counties, we should remain void of any substantial rain for the first four-to-six hours of the daytime.
Then it’s all downhill from around noon to 2 p.m., pending how well our models are handling whereabouts additional rains will begin to develop.
The chances for organized, strong storms remains fairly slim but not completely out of the question. With a front in the equation, we naturally have a bit more juice in the atmosphere to produce some more aggressive storms if other ingredients line up.
Right now, Storm Prediction Center does not have us highlighted for a severe weather threat.
But, I’m thinking with the front hanging out over us, combined with excessive building up moisture, and the winds in play, we can’t rule out seeing some elevated winds in your more put together showers and storms as well as thunder and lightning in some spots.
This will be a prolonged event as well. We’ll see the heaviest rains and the greatest piling up of rainfall totals begin to occur between 3-5 p.m. So it’s not entirely a great day to be out and about, whether it be for holiday festivities or even routine errands before the new work week ahead.
The front won’t pick up any forward momentum until well after the sun is set, as a weak spin starts to grow off our east coastline. That’s what will eventually tug the front far enough south to remove the rains and build in some cooler, drier air for most of Monday.
However, it’s highly encouraged you continuously check in with us tomorrow night and early Monday morning as some of those leftover rains may be what you wake up to.
Our southernmost viewing counties could start Monday with light to moderate steady rains. The threat for any thunderstorms or heavy rains should have diminished late Sunday. Fog will also be a thing of the past for the bulk of our neighborhood as the front finally swings all the way through.
Then, looking ahead, we actually have some quality weather to look forward to. Temperatures should remain just below average if not right at that average 75 degree threshold until next weekend. We’re playing the rhythm game tracking cold fronts across the country.