Folks who have been hoping for a winter chill for the holiday season will get their wish – at least for a couple of days.
They will just have to deal with a stormy start to the work week.
A strong cold front is moving through the state on the final day of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, producing showers and thunderstorms Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service. It prompted a tornado warning until 6:30 a.m. for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties as the front could produce damaging wind gusts and possible waterspouts across the Nature Coast.
A line of gusty downpours and storms will approach the I-4 corridor from the west and arrive around or shortly after 8 AM, including #Orlando. Storms arriving in #Sarasota, #Bradenton, and #Lakeland before 8 AM. #FLwx pic.twitter.com/2X2MX7Y8Ba
— Florida Storms (@FloridaStorms) November 30, 2020
Once the storms end, the greater Tampa Bay region will see some major changes, with a dry air mass winds from the north to northwest driving lows across the I-4 corridor into the low to mid 40s.
Ray Hawthorne, meteorologist with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, said the chill will last a couple of days and rival some of the coldest weather we saw all of last season.
“Freezing temperatures are likely early Tuesday in the Panhandle, west of Tallahassee, and those freezing temperatures are likely to extend into the remainder of North Florida on Wednesday morning,” Hawthorne said. “Lows in the 30s are likely as far south as Central Florida away from the immediate coast, with 40s on Wednesday morning into South Florida.”
The wintry blast will continue into Wednesday morning, with temperatures plummeting well into the low 30s to low 40s and parts of the Nature Coast likely experiencing a brief freeze.
Hawthorne said temperatures will likely moderate by Thursday but remain at or below average for the remainder of the week thanks to a big pattern change affecting much of the eastern United States.
Information from the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network was used in this report.
