ORLANDO, Fla. – Here’s to a Happy New Year to all of us not only here in Central Florida, but across the globe! 2026 is officially here, and we’ve got big changes already on the immediate horizon to talk about.
If you spent the night ringing in the famous Times Square ball drop from home or elsewhere in town, we dropped once again toward freezing-temperature territory and are still lingering there in some spots as the sun comes up.
Freeze warnings are in effect for Alachua, Marion, and Sumter counties until 8 a.m. The rest of us, minus the aforementioned counties, are dealing with a frost advisory until 9 a.m.
I will say, despite the rather cold start once again, especially on the first of January 2026, Thursday afternoon will give way to a more pleasant set up with high temperatures getting into the mid 60s! Sounds like a beautiful intro to the new year.
Friday gets even better, with overnight lows hopefully avoiding the freezing mark altogether and the potential for some neighborhoods to see 70 degrees on their thermometers during the warmest part of Friday afternoon.
Into the weekend, there are a couple of variables we’ll be monitoring that could influence how things play out Friday through Sunday.
Not only will we consistently warmup between now and then, but a few of us could receive some beneficial rain Friday and especially Saturday night.
As a subtropical ridge begins to rebuild over the heart of the lower 48, some of that jet stream energy will slip beneath the trough that’s reached down across us now providing us with these frigid temperatures.
Late Friday night into very early Saturday morning, an area of low pressure could spin up over areas of Mississippi and Alabama moving generally eastward.
As it moves toward the Atlantic coast, some of that subtropical moisture it attracts could be push down through us upping the chance a few of us get some rain after sunset on Saturday and the first few hours of Sunday.
Then, we’re back to dry conditions and some big time, above average temperatures toward the first full week of January. This time next week in fact, we could see a return of low 80 degree afternoon highs as the ridge really dominates our weather pattern once again.