CENTRAL FLORIDA — We have a weather alert day for Central Florida due to strong winds, elevated fire danger, and potential for severe weather late this evening.
Before the rain arrives, Central Florida could see wind gusts between 30 and 40 mph between the late morning hours and early evening.
As the front approaches and some thunderstorms develop, we may even see gusts up to 50 mph for some isolated locations.
The rain will be moving steadily across the state, creating more widespread severe weather in the panhandle and north Florida.
As the front continues south there will be less available energy to produce severe storms however these cannot be ruled out for Central Florida.
The wind is the main threat with the storms as previously mentioned, but a secondary threat in the strongest storms will be hail up to half an inch in diameter.
Storm impacts such as tornadoes, frequent lightning and heavy rain are not expected with this round of storms but cannot be entirely ruled out.
The first good chance of thunderstorms in Central Florida will impact Marion County in the late afternoon. They also have the greatest chance to see severe storms develop.
For Daytona Beach, the storms will most likely move in after 5:00 p.m. and last until 8:00 p.m.
With the dry vegetation in place, this will lead to an elevated fire danger Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening.
Orlando’s timing will be mainly 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. for the worst storms.
Severe storms need heat, instability and rising air created by a warm ground to build. Since Orlando’s timing will be during the evening the chances of a severe storm developing are significantly less than our northern counties such as Marion, Flagler and Volusia.
We will be much clearer and slightly cooler for President’s Day with highs in the lower 70s. We will quickly return to the 80s by Wednesday.
We are not tracking another good chance of rain over the next 10 days once we are done with this system on Sunday.
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