Panama City Fla. (WMBB) – Rain chances sticking with us through the weekend, the front stalls tonight and stays there until another one clears us out on Monday. This has brought the rain chances up for both Saturday and Sunday. The coast could get a bit of sea breeze protection and that should help us out along the coast to stay dry there.
Tonight warm and humid conditions with temps only set to fall into the low 70s. Rain chances will remain just slight with a stray shower or storm possible. Friday the wind will be out of the north aloft this should pin the sea breeze to the coast and allow for better rain chances on the coast vs our inland areas which should just see isolated coverage for our Friday. Saturday and Sunday the front will still be stalled across the area. The wind will be out of the west and southwest this should help the coast as the sea breeze moves inland and keeps the coastal areas dry so for the weekend coastal areas will remain at 30% but inland areas will see the rain chances jump to 50% mostly in the afternoon and mostly with the sea breeze. Monday a front should work through and clear the area allowing for the ridge to build and temps to rise. Much of next week looks like the mid-90s will be possible. The question will be how many afternoon popups help to cool us off.
El Nino is official and forecast to continue to strengthen as well last through the winter. Typically that means more moisture for us compared to the average. Cooler conditions are mostly due to the extra cloud cover and rain but can allow for bigger cold outbreaks in the east during the winter. Hurricane season typically sees a reduced number of storms thanks to more wind shear across the Atlantic. This year the water in the Atlantic and Caribbean is very warm and could offset the wind shear somewhat. This is why the forecast is for a near-normal season vs a below avg season but we will have to see what factor plays a bigger role.
