Here's your Tampa area weather forecast for late Friday into Saturday morning, along with a closer look at the cold weather moving into the area.

  • Heavy showers & storms
  • Windy conditions
  • Much colder air

Showers and storms, with some strong to severe, will move through as the front pivots southeast toward our area. Expect still some lingering rain across the region through Saturday morning, as the cold air comes rushing in from the Gulf and combines with the lingering moisture in the atmosphere.

Temperatures will be backwards from what we normally expect, with the warmest temperatures before sunrise and then falling temperatures after that for the rest of Saturday.

Temperatures will fall through the low 60s and 50s the rest of the day, with most spots by late afternoon down in the low 50s.

The morning rain will exit with drier air moving in for the afternoon, and the clouds will break up with clearing skies Saturday night.

Expect very gusty winds from the northwest at about 15 to 30 mph all day.

Saturday night will be cold, with lows bottoming out in the 30s and 40s for Sunday morning. There will be some spots in Citrus to Hernando counties near freezing.

Sunday will be sunny but chilly by Florida standards, with highs only in the upper 50s to near 60.

Sunday night into Monday morning will be even colder, with most lows in the 30s away from the coast. There will likely be a freeze for Citrus, Hernando, and parts of Pasco counties Monday morning.

Monday will start the week off on the cool side, but milder than the weekend, with highs in the 60s under mainly sunny skies.

Monday night will not be as cold, with lows in the 40s and 50s.

Tuesday will be milder, with highs near 70 under partly cloudy skies.

Yet another cold front will come through knocking our temperatures down again for mid to late week.

Snow in Florida

Snow is the last thing we think about in Florida, and many current residents escaped the north to get away from snow.

But in 1977, we actually saw a few inches in Orlando and Tampa, and since then we've seen flurries and "ocean-effect" snow in various parts of the state.

Here are a few notable dates from the last 50 years:

  • Jan. 8-9, 2010 -- Reports of light snow along the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Melbourne, along with widespread reports of sleet and freezing rain.
  • Dec. 28, 2010 -- Light snow reported at Tampa Executive Airport following a rare freezing fog event.
  • Jan. 18, 1977 -- A combination of weather systems created an arctic blast that sent cold temperatures all the way down to Miami, where it snowed. Orlando and Tampa saw as much as six inches of rain in some isolated spots, though one to two inches was more common.

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