The strong cold front whipped through the First Coast overnight with gusty winds but no where near enough rain. Temps. become the story now after a record breaking 85 degrees at JIA Wed. - not only a record for Jan. 30th (83), but the highest temps. ever recorded in Jan. going back to 1871 (84)!
Temps. will be much cooler through the weekend with a light inland frost/freeze early Fri. & especially early Sat. Highs will struggle to reach 60 Thu. & will be in the 60s Fri.-Sun. The avg. high for the end of Jan./early Feb. is 66 degrees.
The transitiion to colder temps. was accompanied by a severe storm outbreak with nearly 225 severe storm reports Thu. after more than 400 Wed.! One of the more intense tornadoes occurred near midday Thu. about 60 miles NW of Atlanta. Check out the video **
here (WSB, Atlanta) ** & see photo below from WSB-TV .... click **
here ** to see a photo slideshow. At least 1 person was killed & more than a dozen injured. There were many mangled cars strewn along I-75. Click on the N.W.S. offices below for storm surveys that have so far been conducted:
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Nashville, Tn
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Paducah, Ky. --
here for a few damage photos.
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Memphis, Tn.
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Little Rock, Ar.
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Springfield, Mo.
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Tulsa, Ok.
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Louisville, Ky. -
here for EF-2 survey...
here for EF-1 survey.
Dry conditions are becoming an increasing concern locally. Wed. night's rain was minor with virtually none of NE Fl. or SE Ga. receiving more than a half inch of rain in a day since at least Jan. 6th. I don't see any significant rain through at least the middle & end of next week. The map below shows the drought monitor (abnormally dry for NE Fl., moderate drought for SE Ga.)...the 2nd map is the KBI (Keetch-Byram Index) which is used by the forest service to help determine wildfire danger.
