ORLANDO, Fla. – A severe thunderstorm warning issued for Lake County has expired.
Sunday’s Daytona 500 successfully remained rain free after being moved up one hour due to the threat of severe weather moving into Central Florida.
Impacts are just about dialed in, and the worst should begin to roll into our viewing area between 6-8 p.m.
This also helps give you an extra window of opportunity to find some cover before the rains start coming down.
Because of the race, traffic on Central Florida roads will still be plenty busy even though it is Sunday. You don’t want to get caught in heavy rainfall or thunder and lightning on I-4.
We have an elevated risk for severe weather today, primarily for our northern counties. A level 2/5 risk means scattered strong to severe thunderstorms are possible, with some lasting a bit longer than just a few minutes. This could mean extended impacts if you aren’t prepared.
The rest of us are still bathed beneath a level 1/5 marginal risk for severe weather. While the threat becomes a lot more localized and isolated south and east of say, Sumter and Lake counties, we should still anticipate the arrival of gustier winds, lightning, and heavier rainfall pockets.
A decent chunk of your Sunday will be pretty swell. A bit breezy, and noticeably muggier, but we won’t start to see conditions go downhill until the sun begins to set.
Right now for our northwestern folks, we begin to see the onset of our stronger storms between 6-8 p.m.
For the Orlando metro area, and our four corners counties, the arrival is looking around 10 p.m. - midnight.
If you happen to catch some gnarly weather pics or video in your neighborhood, please share them with us on Clickorlando.com in the PinIt! section HERE.
Now, at this point since we’re about four or so hours after sunset, these storms will start to lose their punch. It’s the warmth of the sun, and what energy they can pull in off our coastlines that will help keep the risk for stronger thunderstorms elevated.
After a certain hour, it becomes increasingly difficult to do so.
Finally, around 2 a.m. we see drastic improvements as our line of rain and storms pushes south of our area. We’ll see a period of elevated winds as some cooler air rushes in back behind the cold front.
But overall into Monday morning, it won’t be a cool down or anywhere close to the freezes we’ve witnessed earlier this month.
Our morning lows will settle down to the upper 40s up north and low 50s across Orlando. Then Monday afternoon will be comfortable in the mid 70s, and this is likely to carryover into Tuesday.
We’ll be back to warming up consistently once again through the workweek ahead. Unfortunately, this means we’ll also go back to a period of no rainfall whatsoever.
It does look like there’s hope of another cold frontal system coming down towards us as we get ready for the last few days of February that might bring us some more beneficial rain. Before we begin to examine the chances there, I want us to safely get through Sunday night together.