Happy Thanksgiving! Running 40 Degrees Warmer than 40 Years Ago!

Thursday, November 25, 2010----10 a.m.

Happy Thanksgiving! It was wonderful waking up to the smell of brownies and the sound of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Kermit the Frog's float did not blow away or take out a lamp post like it did a couple years ago with just a light wind and better yet the rain is holding off until after the parade.

Thanksgiving is a time full of great memories from those big feasts in Maryland between ping pong games in the basement to the personal pies for everyone in Delphi, the pheasant dinner in Duluth with temperatures at -2 degrees, to the pilgrim hats at the Hayes house. The Cheese heads in Wisconsin that not only fed us but sent us home with several 10 pound blocks of cheese. Yes, my family has been blessed and has a lot to be thankful for. To all our friends and family across the country that have taken us in all these years....we will be thinking of you and wish you the best Thanksgiving ever. We miss you. Our family is heading to my Mom and Dad's in Mandarin and it will be great to see my brother and grandmother or Meemaw!

Speaking of great weather it was an incredible time at Winter Wonderland in St. Augustine last night. You see the Prangley girls enjoying the Candy land trail and yes it was warm enough for short sleeves. Today it will be plenty warm for shorts and what a difference 40 years makes. This morning marks the anniversary of the coldest November morning in Jacksonville history when we started out at 21 degrees. Folks kept their turkeys frozen outside compared to today where turkeys are browning up in the sun before being deep-fryed or grilled...lol. I have the football ready to throw out in the sun and the weather looks perfect for walking off some of that turkey this evening with temperatures once again holding in the 60s. Today marks our third consecutive day in the 80s and it certainly is one of our longest strings of 80 degree weather this late in the season ever! When we hit 80 in 2005 on Thanksgiving that was just a one time thing. I think tomorrow we make it four 80 degree days in a row before cooler weather arrives for the weekend. Today's forecast high is 82 degrees. Here is how it compares to previous Thanksgivings since 2003.

• Last year  67 degrees
• 2008        69 degrees
• 2007        72 degrees (rain)
• 2006        65 degrees
• 2005        80 degrees
• 2004        71 degrees (rain)
• 2003        81 degrees

The full blue moon we talked about over the weekend was still shining brightly through the fog last night as you can see. It really did have a blue hue to it and it may have been caused by a fog, smoke mixture since we have about 20 wildfires that are now on-going in our viewing area. It was spectacular. I asked my girls just to make sure I was not seeing things and they confirmed it did have a blue tinge to it. It was spectacular! As expected we had a dense fog advisory last night through 10 a.m. this morning but I think our fog concerns will now turn into frost concerns as we head into the weekend with even a freeze possible by Sunday morning in some of those cooler locations in interior Florida and Georgia. I look forward to tracking that front with you on Friday morning's early shows. Speaking of which here is the latest look outside some shopping centers on the West side!

Yes, here are some shots from our newscast last night and since some stores this year are opening at 3 a.m. folks are just setting up tents. My wife has the alarm set before 4 a.m. tomorrow morning but it may be the first Black Friday I beat here out of the house since I will help Steve out with his morning shows tomorrow since he has family in town...I will be up by 1:45 a.m. and out of here by 2:30 a.m. I am motivated by weather 24/7 and even more so on Friday since I will be beating the traffic. But seriously temperatures look great for all the shoppers with lower to middle 60s expected from 12 a.m. through 6 a.m. There will partly cloudy conditions and with a south breeze kicking up I do not think even fog will be a problem. You can shop in your shorts! The rain should hold off until the afternoon and most model runs are not very impressive with less than .10" expected.

Once again the main storm track will be well north of our area with a stubborn high pressure parked over us. Signs are this high pressure will finally be breaking down for good as we head into December with not only much colder weather expected but a better chance of more significant rain. Santa is reporting unusually warm temperatures at the workshop. I will talk more about this on the blog and air this weekend. In the meantime, go enjoy your family and weather!