Windy & Wet Conditions Ahead

by Shane Butler

We’re about to enter into an active weather pattern that begins Wednesday and last through early Friday.  Our recent summer-like conditions will be replaced by heavy rain and wind going forward this week.

In the meantime,  we expect a partly cloudy with possibly a few showers overnight.  A frontal boundary moves into the state and our rain chances begin to climb early Wednesday.  Showers and t-storms will develop along and well ahead of the frontal system.   Some of the storms could be strong to possibly severe.  The main threats will be damaging winds up to 60 mph and  a brief tornado. The clouds and rain activity will help bring down the temps and highs will only manage mid to upper 80s Wednesday afternoon.

Another player in our weather will be Tropical Storm Helene centered in the northern Caribbean.   National Hurricane Center has forecast the storm to become a hurricane as it enters the gulf Wednesday.  It’s forecast to make landfall as a major hurricane Thursday evening.  Right now, looks like a landfall would be somewhere between Panama City Beach and Tampa.  It seems more likely around the Big Bend area of Florida’s western coast.   The tropical system then moves into Georgia and that puts us on the western side of the circulation.  It’s the better side to be on but there can still be several impacts.  We’re expecting  heavy rainfall and gusty winds to reach our area with the greater impacts across our eastern counties.  Rainfall potential of 2 to 5 inches and wind gust 35 to 40 mph will be possible Thursday into early Friday.

Our weather will be improving going into the upcoming weekend.  The rain moves out by late Friday morning and the winds relax throughout the afternoon hours.  Partly sunny skies return and we head into Friday evening uneventful weatherwise. We don’t see any weather issues for Friday night football games or college games Saturday.  The rest of the weekend is looking fairly nice.  We’re expecting mostly sunny skies with a few showers possible. Temps will manage the mid 80s for highs both days.