JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Quick update: As of 10 p.m. it remains an amazingly beautiful and warm Thursday evening with temperatures still in the mid-70s. Despite the rather unseasonable conditions, Exact Track 4D and the Storm Prediction Center are still not seeing anything too noteworthy for severe possibilities tonight. Never the less, there is a broad swath of rain out to the west of Jacksonville that will impact your day on Friday.
Equally as wet we will be throughout much of the daytime morning hours, our temperatures will start off in the 60s and quickly drop down into the 50s. Once in the 50s, they will not be warming up, basically hovering in the low 50s, with drizzle/rain through the early evening hours.
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Therefore, Friday will be a Weather Authority Alert Day due to inconvenient, chilly rain that will stick around much longer than we’d like.
We don’t expect severe storms in the Jacksonville area, although we could see a thunderstorm or two. We expect rounds of disruptive rain to push through starting very early Friday morning and persist for most of the day.
The rain will push into southeastern Georgia late Thursday night into early Friday morning. During this time we may see a few thunderstorms and a slight chance for severe storms from Valdosta to Waycross to Brunswick. There is a possibility of a Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Watch in those locations.
“The big story here is not about severe weather. This is a story about cold rains that will be inconvenient, nasty,” Weather Authority Chief Meteorologist John Gaughan said. “They will last throughout the entire day on Friday. The severe threat will be only in the Waycross area. There, they could see a brief severe storm Thursday night between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.”
ONLINE FORECAST & CONDITIONS: Northeast Florida | Southeast Georgia
Showers and weakening storms will start to push into northeastern Florida during the early morning hours of Friday (around sunrise). Those who are early birds will be surprised just how warm temperatures will be during those early Richard Nunn hours. They will drop quickly into the 50s and may drop into the 40s before sundown on Friday. Basically, the combination of chilly and damp weather will be rather unpleasant.
We’ll start to see drier conditions mid-day Friday in southeastern Georgia, with showers slowly fading from the northwest to the southeast during the afternoon.
A cold front behind the showers pushes through Friday night, clearing our skies out and dropping our temperatures into the frosty zone Saturday morning. Overnight lows will be in the mid- to upper-30s.
“The worst of the cold stays well north of us and we do not see widespread freezing temps for Jacksonville this weekend, but frost could be expected in Georgia,” Gaughan said.