Shop till You Drop on the Beach Weather!

Friday, November 25, 2011

We have great shop till you drop weather for the remainder of this afternoon with highs in the lower to middle 70s. This picture was sent to me by my wife Julie at about midnight! That is right she snuck out with  my daughters while I was sleeping and they actually woke me up at 2 a.m. as I was getting up to go to work! The lines were long and yes Black Friday lived up to the hype. But I am renaming Black Friday, Green Friday! This is because we will go from good shopping weather with this mornings chill to good outdoors weather. We will have plenty of sunshine and it will be comfortable with highs in the middle 70s. You can take a nice walk or run under the green palm trees or hit the greens and tee it up one our many fine golf courses on the beautiful First Coast. I know a lot of folks are from out of town and they will not be able to hit the links until next Spring! The beach will also be the other place to be today with highs having no trouble reaching the lower 70s even on the sand. But will we stay nice or turn nasty like a couple weather models suggested over the last few days!

My verdict is in and I am going NICE!!! Shop till you drop ON THE BEACH! You have to know the big picture and it is showing a split jet stream. Notice the polar jet stream is well to the north keeping the real cold stuff bottled up in Alaska and Northwest Canada. The southern jet stream and ridge continue to dominate our weather. As a result, not only will we continue to warm up this weekend but I think we could hit 80 degrees! This La Nina pattern will be repeated this winter and I have an updated winter outlook coming up for you here on the blog over the weekend!

Our weekend has two big weather-makers. We have the cold front to the west and the Bermuda high in the East. Usually the cold front wins out this time of year and it eventually will. But our high pressure will put up a stubborn fight and this means we will can get out the sunscreen this weekend instead of the umbrellas. If you are going to the Jags game it will easily hit 80 degrees and feel much warmer in the stands.

Travel weather also looks good on Sunday with the heaviest snow remaining in Canada and the higher elevations of the Pacific Northwest.and West. Atlanta should be okay and those nasty rumors of snow on Sunday are just not true. Even Chicago has some bonus weather for this time of year with minimal delays and just a few snow flurries. The only problem area will be the Pacific Northwest so check ahead if Aunt Polly is heading back to Portland.

On Monday the front finally makes a move east with a few showers and believe it or not some wet snowflakes for the deep South which may include Mississippi and Alabama! We may eek out one more day near 80 before the rain and wintry change comes in Monday night into Tuesday. It all depends on the front. I will have updates throughout the weekend and look forward to seeing you at 8 a.m. on Saturday for Good Morning Jacksonville! Santa arrives on Center Street in Fernandina Saturday and he will feel at home next week! I do think we could see both a freeze and frost  with maybe only 50s for highs by Wednesday.

In the short-term at the Landing  tonight and for all the big high school playoff games temperatures will be in the middle to upper 50s with mostly clear skies. Now off to  Grandmas! I am ready for some leftover. Enjoy the great weather and family time! Thanks for the pictures and weather notes you sent me this morning. Take care and I will see  you soon. You can also e-mail weather pictures to weather@firstcoastnews.com and go to our Facebook page at firstcoastnews.com. I love sharing your fun pictures, weather info, and stories. Also, you can send in some weather questions, concerns, or if you need a personal forecast I will be more than happy to help out! You can always reach me at mprangley@firstcoastnews.com.