4 things to know about the weather
- Cool, quiet pattern here
- Weekend looks warm, sunny
- Much cooler next week
- Milton heading into Florida
As all eyes turn to watch Hurricane Milton heading into Florida, our weather will remain delightfully quiet.
Sunny skies and temperatures close to an average of 72° Wednesday afternoon will come with a steady wind from the northwest.
The breeze will settle down after sunset, leaving us with a chilly start Thursday morning. Most areas are in the 40s. Highs Thursday afternoon will remain in the mid-60s under a perfectly blue, October sky.
Highs will return to around 70° on Friday and closer to 80° on Saturday and Sunday. A major change in the jet stream pattern will drive temperatures well below average for all of next week.
Highs should still reach around 65° on Monday but may not crack 60° from Tuesday onwards. As for rain, we are not likely to get any at all until the tail end of next week.
Weather radar
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Hurricane Milton strengthens before it hits Florida
Hurricane Milton is now less than 24 hours away from reaching the west coast of Florida. Landfall is still most likely to occur somewhere dangerously close to, or just to the south of, Tampa Bay. The strike time will be somewhere just after midnight but winds of 74 mph or more will arrive around sunset.
This is as close to a worst-case scenario as possible. Tampa Bay is a large, shallow body of water. The average depth is only around 10-12 feet, other than man-made shipping channels. All-time record high storm surges of 4-6 feet were just set two weeks ago by Hurricane Helene and the eye of that storm never came within 100 miles of Tampa.
The surge with this storm could easily be 10-12 feet from Tampa Bay to Saint Petersburg to Sarasota. That much water on a densely populated shoreline, plus winds well in excess of 100 mph, will drive property losses beyond $100 billion! And that number cannot even begin to measure to cost in human lives.
The storm will increase in forward speed after landfall bringing hurricane conditions all the way across the peninsula.
Orlando, in central Florida, and the east coast beached from Daytona Beach south to Melbourne, Florida will also be severely impacted by wind and rain totals of up to 10 inches. The storm should emerge off the East Coast and head back to sea by around noon Thursday.
10-day forecast
Quickcast
TODAY:
Sunny
Mild
Breezy Afternoon
Chance Of Rain: 0%
Wind: Northwest 10-20 mph
HIGHS: 66° - 72°
TONIGHT:
Clear Skies
Breezy Evening
Chilly
Chance Of Rain: 0%
Wind: North 5 mph
LOWS: 42° - 48°
THURSDAY:
Sunny
Cool
Steady Breeze
Wind: Northwest 8-12 mph
Chance Of Rain: 0%
HIGHS: 60° - 65°
FRIDAY:
Sunny
Mild
Light Breeze
Wind: West 4-8 mph
Chance Of Rain: 0%
HIGHS: 65° - 70°
SATURDAY:
Mostly Sunny
Warmer
Steady Breeze
Wind: West/Northwest 10 mph
Chance Of Rain: 0%
HIGHS: 72° - 78°
Sunrise 7:12 Sunset 6:38
Average High: 72° Average Low: 55°
