Bee-lieve It: Record Warm February in Progress - Chance of Showers Overnight

 Not much change from previous post which was a while ago. Record warmth, mainly in regard to overnight warm minimums as was anticipated continues, and shall continue to be the case up through Monday.

TODAY: With that said, the only change from the past two days is a better risk of rain showers over Eastern Half of State toward mid-late evening  tonight and up through before sunrise Friday certain areas. Overnight lows generally in the mid-upper 60FS with lower 70Fs east coast south of the Cape - highs in the interior running in the mid 80Fs. 

Clermont yesterday reached 90F, a new record for that location. Immediate Beach side temperatures have been running in the upper 70Fs to near 80F north of Ft Pierce, and south of the Cape.

As noted, a few showers possible overnight tonight as shown above. The GFS has been proposing as such for a few days now and the 4KM NAM has fallen in line.  

The NWS in Melbourne is pointing out that many areas in "East Central Florida" are in-line for a record or near record warm February, after below to much below temperatures last month. Does that mean the trend will continue through March? 

Not necessarily. The GFS and the Climate CFS-V2 model both show a shift to occur possibly in the later parts of the first week of March that would take us all the way down to 'normal'. But, that is quite a way off, and too soon to weigh in on with any due course of certainty.

A cold front is  expected , however, to work down the state late Monday afternoon or into the evening (timing could change). Prior to that we might see near to record high max temperatures as well for many parts of East Central Florida as wind acquires a more Southwesterly Component prior to frontal Passage.

 Post-front conditions appear will still be 'above normal' mainly in the morning minimums and will provide for a cooler day by standards of late, but still above average. The front itself appears will go through as 'dry'. 

Quick recovery after that front to continued  'above normal' temperatures thus follows by a day or two after the front clears. Noting, that it is the interior that is truly feeling the warmth in the afternoons. The 'immediate' coast has been much more mild-moderate with less than a 10F degree difference between morning low minimums and afternoon maxes.

I have observed that the water temperature at the buoy near the Cape Canaveral Port entrance is now reading water temperature of 73F which is up a whopping 10F degrees from about a month ago.

The NWS , Melbourne has been busy putting out  'Record' or "Tying Record' reports most every day, mainly for the warm, minimum category, though some record highs have been reported as well, one such location being 'Sanford'. Below is but a few samples of these reports.

Showers / Thunder Possible Central/North Late - Above Normal Temperatures Continue

February 24 2014 - Cape Canaveral

TODAY: Not much change from previous reasoning. Low level surface ridge axis across far South Florida combined with closest approach to the north of upper level trough will yield a general SSW flow aloft while sea breezes will still be permitted to become active. Slight surface based instability with very cool air aloft but with poor lapse rates in the mid levels could still yield some thunder where greatest upward forcing occurs late today toward interior Central/East Central up toward eastern portions of North Central (Volusia County) the vicinity of the west-east coast sea breeze collision zone where best surface based instability will also be present after a full day of heating. 

Otherwise, continued warm with temperatures averaging 10-15F degrees above climatological norms for this time of year. At this time of year in history past there has been historic freeze events (only to emphasize how varied one year can be from the next).

Best chance of showers will be approximately 10 miles from any coast "South to most of Central Florida" but with a working toward the immediate coast mainly from Central Brevard northward. A thunder might occur near the Lake Okeechobee / Sea Breeze collision boundary  South Central but the greater focus appears to be in the Orlando/Osceola County region to east side of Orlando, maybe even working toward I-95 Central Brevard most likely near to after dark. After sunset would 'expect' the activity would quickly dwindle (at least in regard to lightning chance) with some strangling in-cloud lightning aloft remaining a possibility with thunder audible some areas.

Activity could potentially work offshore Volusia County as thunder and rain showers from Central Brevard northward is not entirely out of the question.

Many areas will not see rain at all today but those that do it will be a welcome sight for days ahead appear to continue to be on the dry side, as would be generally expected this time of year.

MONDAY- TUESDAY: Dry most areas and continued warm. Best chance of showers or maybe some thunder mainly interior western parts of North Central up toward I-10. (Lake County, areas around Ocala, Gainesville). This will occur as the ridge axis currently far South Florida lifts toward North Florida putting the majority of the state under a light easterly flow pattern. Thus, coastal afternoon temperatures will continue to be greatly modified by cool air advection off the near shore Atlantic waters making for 10F or less degree variations between overnight temperatures and afternoon highs at the beaches.

WEDNESDAY-NEXT SUNDAY: Little change in temperatures with dry conditions. A frontal boundary to ease down the state in a rather  ' backdoor fashion ' will modify temperatures just a bit come Friday into Saturday time frame with little to no fanfare. Saturday might be a bit cooler with a recovery on Sunday at least as is currently being reflected by the GFS model. Even so, those cooler temperatures will still be above 'normal' and not below the 64F mark overnight (interior).

FURTHER OUT: Any big cold blasts from the past on the horizon? Yes and No. Very long range climactic model guidance has at times been showing 'much colder' coming into the first or second week of March which is questionable given how far out in time that projection is. It is not unusual to have a very cool to cold spell in the first half (at least ) of March, but usually they are rather short-lived. The trend, however, has been to ease off that potential.

Above "Normal' Temperatures Continues into Next Week / Chance of Central Thunder Sunday

"Jacob" (or Jake) near Port Canaveral Jetty - 2015 Early February

TODAY: Not much discernible change in the overall weather scheme other than rising dew-points. Early Saturday morning dew-points near the east coast were in the upper 60Fs to near 70Fs. 

With increased moisture will be an increased 'mugginess' especially notable in the mornings for some time to come. 

Afternoon highs west of US1 in the lower 80Fs with highs approaching the mid-80Fs in more interior locations possible almost anywhere. Coolest afternoon highs near the immediate coast, depending on how long before the east coast sea breeze sets in, but in general beaches will see upper 70Fs until that time, at which point they will go down as wind blows across ocean temperatures now running in the mid 60Fs.

Elsewhere, a frontal boundary stretched SW to NE across the Deep South will set the stage for wide spread rain and cloud cover, with some thunder possible mostly across the West Half to Third of the Florida Panhandle later today / tonight.

SUNDAY: Again, not much change as frontal boundary begins to stall before reaching Florida. Wind will be more southerly and light, though with the upper trough making it's closest 'approach' to the Peninsula mid-level winds will have gained  more of a SW to NE steering flow. 

The east coast sea breeze will work inland but may not much make it more than 30-40 miles inland of the east coast (South of I-4) 

Best convergence of sea breezes with light to moderate surface based instability could yield boundary driven showers and maybe even some thunder 'somewhere' within the region shown below. 

The best chance of thunder will be very close to the region of low level surface temperature contrasts which will be ahead of the sea breeze, thus over the 'interior' in general. With the steering from SSW-SW toward the east coast some activity might be able to reach even the beaches toward to after dark. The risk of 'thunder' by that time might be minimal as low - mid level lapse rates look quite week, not strong enough to support updrafts as is currently being shown. Surface based instability (CAPE) will be running around 1000 j/kg (compare to summer months when it runs between 2800 - 4000 j/kg). Additionally, any shower or storm activity approaching the east coast will be riding over much cooler surface temperatures (courtesy of the cool ocean temperatures) which likely would put the kibosh on any activity attempting to reach the coast.

The NAM model is not nearly as generous with the 'rain coverage', showing a storm closer toward interior Volusia County and others possible more toward SW Florida. On the other hand, the GFS has consistently been favoring 'mainly' south of I4 toward the interior with a drift to the immediate east coast after dark.

So for now, just drew an 'overall and in general' image for where rain/thunder might occur late Sunday into the evening.

MONDAY - TUESDAY: Little change in overall temperature scheme, with the interior (or region west of US1) much warmer than the 'immediate beach' going into mid-later afternoon once sea breezes develop. 

Warmest temperatures likely 20 miles from any coast, not to say that all areas won't  be a bit above normal. If there is to be any 'records' broken, morning warm minimums   seem more likely, especially at the beaches; however, since the officially recorded locations that establish the norms/records in those locations are non-existent there will be no way to know if indeed, record warm minimums have been set at the beaches, so we'll have to rely on other sparsely official sites such as Melbourne / Ft Pierce / Vero Beach (at least as far as the east coast is concerned). Otherwise, afternoon maxes will be a challenge. In past years we have seen upper 80Fs set as records going back up to 60 years ago. Regardless...

Chance of shower or even thunder  continues for a region north of I-4 such as in Lake County up toward the Ocala Region (interior North Central to NW Interior Florida) Monday or both days.

MIDWEEK - FRIDAY: Dryer weather with little to no chance of rain with temperatures continuing as already discussed. 

Though a front may will slide down the state  Wednesday no rain is anticipated with it, and only slight cooling will be noticed from it, especially on Thursday morning; even so, morning lows will still be in the lower -mid 60Fs for areas at the beaches Central Florida and south with the interiors noticing more of the 'drop' which will still result in above normal morning lows.

Quick recovery on temperatures though 'alqd ' (All Quadrants) come Friday.

Latest guidance now shows it could be warmer even into all of next weekend, but previous guidance was not so generous. 

Too far out to say for now.