The rain moved in Wed. & Wed. night & while there were scattered heavy downpours, amounts -- as a whole -- were not all that great averaging less than a half inch. Some rain will linger into Thu. morning & when combined with thick clouds, temps. will be much cooler with afternoon highs only in the 50s & 60s.
Fri. will be a nice day as temps. make it well into the 60s but a strong cold front will plow through the First Coast Fri. night-Sat. bringing gusty winds & much colder temps. Highs will be in the 50s & low 60s Sat. & Sun. with morning lows near freezing early Sun. & below freezing inland early Mon. The cold won't be long lasting as we'll warm up quickly Mon.-Tue. ahead of yet another storm system & cold front that will bring some rain late Tue.
NASA's coverage of Friday's asteroid:
Summary: It’s not going to hit us, but on Feb. 15th an asteroid named 2012 DA14 is going to make the closest pass to our blue planet in recorded history. But not to worry, this asteroid’s trajectory will have it moving swiftly and safely past our Earth.
Asteroids like DA14 are rocky debris left over from the creation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. They’ve changed little over time and are treasure troves of information about the very beginnings of our solar system. That’s why NASA scientists are preparing for a robotic mission that will bring back samples from another nearby asteroid named 1999 RQ36. What are asteroids made of? Did asteroids seed early Earth with the building blocks of life?
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA Television will provide commentary starting at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) on Friday, Feb. 15, during the close, but safe, flyby of a small near-Earth asteroid named 2012 DA14. NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. This flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.
The half-hour broadcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will incorporate real-time animation to show the location of the asteroid in relation to Earth, along with live or near real-time views of the asteroid from observatories in Australia, weather permitting.
At the time of its closest approach to Earth at approximately 11:25 a.m. PST (2:25 p.m. EST / 19:25 UTC), the asteroid will be about 17,150 miles (27,600 kilometers) above Earth's surface.
The commentary will be available via NASA TV -- click ** here **.
In addition to the commentary, near real-time imagery of the asteroid's flyby before and after closest approach, made available to NASA by astronomers in Australia and Europe, weather permitting, will be streamed beginning at about 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) and continuing through the afternoon ** here **.
A Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be streamed for three hours starting at 6 p.m. PST (8 p.m. CST / 9 p.m. EST). To view the feed and ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter, visit ** here **.
