Rain continues to exit the Bay area as a strong cold front arrives.
According to Bay News 9 Chief Meteorologist Mike Clay, it will be windy and much cooler tonight with morning lows in the mid-upper 40s in our northern counties and mid-upper 50s around Tampa Bay.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued earlier for Pasco, Hillsborough and Polk as a line of storms crossed the region from Pinellas to Citrus County. Citrus also was under a warning earlier, but the storms moved through that county before reaching the rest of the region.
Most of the rain had moved inland and, at mid-afternoon, Polk County was getting hit with showers and thunderstorms.
"Rainfall earlier today was spotty. Some areas picked up 1-2” of rain while others had very little," said Clay.
The rain is arriving ahead of a cold front that's expected to stall to the south of the Tamp Bay area and keep the rain chances somewhat elevated later in the week.
"Rapid changes will be underway for Thursday as moisture surges back with an easterly wind. Shower chances go up to 40% by Thursday afternoon," Clay said.
Rain chances are also high for Friday.
"A low will form on today’s front, stalled in the Gulf on Friday and move directly over us on Friday as it exits into the Atlantic on Saturday," Clay said. "The low will produce rain and some thunderstorms on Friday, rainfall could be heavy too."
Looking further ahead, though, the forecast for the weekend looks outstanding.
Saturday and Sunday will have highs in the low 80s and partly to mostly sunny skies, according to the Bay News 9 weather team.
Rain totals through 2 p.m.
Citrus
Beverly Hills 1.68
Crystal River .94
Sugarmill Woods .84
Inverness .38
Hernando
Weeki Wachee .64
Pasco
San Antonio 2.13
Port Richey 1.24
Zephyrhills 1.20
Dade City 1.10
Land O’ Lakes .87
Hillsborough
Lutz 1.62
Greater Northdale 1.62
Keystone 1.32
USF 1.31
Downtown Tampa .30
MacDill .23
Pinellas
Largo 1.26
Dunedin 1.02
Tarpon Springs .28
North St. Pete .20