JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The streak of wet and wild weather comes after a week of increasingly hot days.
Heat in last week has been oppressive. There's really no other way to describe it. The temperatures have been running way above normal; on the average of 5 degrees or more since June 16th. That's only half the equation.
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We've also had fires. Lots of fires that have been ignited by the very thing we needed most around here: thunderstorms. Those thunderstorms each and every afternoon have dropped very beneficial rain with most areas picking up an inch or two over the past week. It may not be enough water but some cabbage is better than no cabbage, right?
If you're still feeling parched, Wednesday afternoon promises another round of strong thunderstorms with periods of heavy rain sometime after 3 p.m.
Wednesday's forecast
As previously mentioned, it's been hot around here, more so than normal. But the models are now indicating that the heat is going to officially take a break with our highs dropping into the upper 80s to near 90 by week's end.
Could we actually be below normal this weekend? Possible. Time to put another log on the fire, eh?
Look for highs on Wednesday to top out in the low to mid 90s. Some areas may still creep into those mid and upper 90s but those days are limited. Heat index values may still top 100 degrees this afternoon in a few locations so still take the proper heat precautions if you're going to be outside for long periods of time.
Northeast Florida and southeast Georgia is currently located between two areas of high pressure. The further away from the centers of those high pressure cells, the weaker the pressure gradients get. This is what we call a "weakness" and allows for storms to pop fairly easy in the afternoon heat.
That said, there is a 50 percent chance of storms today, mainly after 3 p.m. Any storm that does develop could be on the strong to severe side. We've had severe thunderstorm warnings issued every day since last week and today I suspect will be no different.
We'll continue to keep this story updated and we'll be sending out push notifications to your cellphone via our News4Jax weather app on all severe weather warnings issued for our viewing area.