A frosty night tonight as lows drop to the upper 20s to around 30 near & west of Highway 301...30-33 near the I-95 corridor...but will stay in the mid to upper 30s close to the St. Johns River, Intracoastal & beaches.
I haven't spoken about the ongoing La Nina much recently so time for an update. See the water temps. -- courtesy the Climate Prediction Center -- below which
continues to show below avg. sea surface temps. along the equatorial Pacific -- a moderate to strong La Nina persists, & the forecast is for it to continue at least through the spring.
I would think we'd see some slow warming of the ocean temps. later in March through the spring, but the effects will continue. That's not good news for the First Coast since such strong La Nina's are notoriously dry. We can expect a dry mid March through May with a potentially nasty fire season. This winter's La Nina has been pretty classic -- a mild, dry season for the First Coast...wet Southern Plains to Ohio Valley...mild in New England...higher than avg. winter time tornadoes (though it's been extreme this winter!....see Storm Prediction Center graph below)
The not so classic: primary storm track farther northwest...core of cold -- below avg. temps. -- centered on Iowa, Wisconsin & Minnesota. It's worth noting that strong La Nina's
often lead to a chilly late winter/early spring -- especially in the Eastern U.S.
Long range global forecast models have been consistently latching onto a significant storm system for the middle to end of next week. Obviously details are still fuzzy at this juncture, but it would seem we'll be tracking another major storm in a week or so (with a "moderate"-type system for Fri.-Sat. that will bring some rain as early as Thu. to the First Coast...some severe storms to parts of the Southeast...& snow & ice from the Southern Plains through the Ohio Valley to the Northeast).
National Weather Service offices continue their storm surveys from Sunday. Good, informative summaries can be found from Tallahassee & particularly Mobile/Pensacola.
A full lunar eclipse -- the moon moving through the shadow of the Earth -- will be visible on the First Coast Wed. evening (Feb. 20th)...as long as clouds allow which does look to be an issue. The eclipse begins at 8:43 p.m....reaches totality from 10:01 to 10:51...& the eclipse ends at 12:09 a.m. Find out more by clicking here.
My dear dad sent a link to me that shows an interesting speaker featured on Oprah. The guy is dying from pancreatic cancer & delivered an oft downloaded last lecture to his college class some time ago -- click here (about 11 minutes long).
