Jacksonville, Fl — In anticipation of some heavy afternoon showers and thunderstorms, Action News Jax Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh has declared it a ‘First Alert Weather Day’.
Mike is tracking a strong cold front that has already produced severe weather, damaging winds, and tornadoes in the Deep South. Expect gusty winds of up to 30 mph at times ahead of the rain and storms.
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“Roughly 3 and 5 pm for the I-95 corridor. That would include of course much of metro Jacksonville, north to Yulee, south to Green Cove Springs and then reaching the Intracoastal and the beaches between approximately 3:45 and 6 pm give or take”, Buresh said.
This morning you’ll run into those storms going west on I-10 approaching the Panhandle or heading north on I-75 into Georgia and then they will make their way eastward through the afternoon.
INTERACTIVE RADAR: Keep track of the rain as it moves through your neighborhood
All areas will get some rain today and the primary threat is damaging winds, but a isolated brief tornado is not completely out of the picture.
Skies clear out and temperatures and humidity fall for Friday and into the weekend. There is a possibility of scattered showers on Saturday from an upper-level disturbance that’ll be near the I-4 corridor in central Florida.
Here’s what you can expect into this evening:
- The strongest storms so far have been over inland Southeast Georgia in Waycross & Blackshear
- Heavy rain & scattered storms will spread across most of Northeast Florida impacting the late afternoon commute
- At least some rain everywhere at one time or another with amounts averaging near one inch up to two inches in a few places
- Isolated to widely scattered severe storms could produce damaging winds and/or an isolated tornado
- Thursday’s rain could boost Jacksonville into the top five wettest March’s on record — a month that’s already more than three times above the average March rainfall
- Even without storms, winds today have gusted to between 49 & 50 m.p.h. Temperatures are pushing above 80 degrees. Warm/humid air is helping fuel the storms
- This is the same storm system that’s produced severe weather the last couple of days over the southern plains, gulf coast, Tennessee & Ohio valley’s and the fatal tornado early Thursday morning in the Florida panhandle as well as snow on the cold side over the Midwest & Great Lakes.
- Locally, rain Thursday night will diminish/end after midnight. The severe threat looks to diminish by 7 p.m. to8 p.m.
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But overall the pattern looks dry and mild with comfortable humidity through the weekend.
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