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Saturday Forecast Update for Grand Prix of St. Pete

3/28/2015

After all of the rain that fell yesterday, its time for maximum sunshine and maximum speed on the streets of St. Petersburg. Let's get to the forecast.

SATURDAY
Day starts off clear and cool, with maybe a stray cloud. Winds will be breezy today, and may gust up to 20 MPH. The good news is that there is no chance of rain today.
HIGH: Middle 60s WIND: NW 10-20 MPH CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

SUNDAY
Same as Saturday, but a little warmer. Winds will be breezy but not as strong. Break out the shades and the sunscreen.
HIGH: Lower 70s WIND: NE 10-15 MPH CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

Be sure to follow Racecast Weather on our Twitter feed @RacecastWx, and like our Facebook page RacecastWx. Want to see live radar for the St Petersburg area, click on the Radar link at the top of this page. We are also featured on the Pirelli World challenge Series website at world-challenge.com. Click on the Weather link at the top-right of the page.

Friday Forecast Update for Grand Prix of St. Pete

3/27/2015

By Scott Martin

Sorry that I am late getting the forecast out this morning. I'm feeling a little under the weather today, but some great racing action will make me feel better today. As I am typing this blog entry, numerous showers and thunderstorms are over the Gulf of Mexico and are moving to the ENE. Showers should start to arrive in St. Petersburg within the next 45-60 minutes (12:45PM-1:00PM).

FRIDAY
Mostly cloudy with showers likely and a possible thunderstorm. Expect breezy conditions with winds gusting up to 25 MPH. The chances of rain and thunderstorms will taper off sometime between 9PM-11PM. Rain totals today could be up to 3/4 of an inch. I do not believe any of the storms today will reach severe limits, but when dealing with thunderstorms, expect the unexpected. Our live radar has the warning feature built in. If a warning is issued by the National Weather Service, the warning polygon will show on radar almost instantly. Stay weather aware.
HIGH: Upper 70s     LOW: Around 60     WIND: SW 10-20 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 80%

SATURDAY
Skies clear out and you will notice that the temperatures will definitely be cooler than the previous days. Expecting sunny skies with a windy conditions. Expect winds to be gusty at times, up to 25 MPH. For the night time, much of the same. Clear skies and cooler with breezy conditions. Winds could gust up to 20 MPH.
HIGH: Upper 60s     LOW: Middle 50s     WIND: NW 10-20 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

SUNDAY
Appears to be an almost carbon copy of Saturday, except it will be a little warmer. Sunny skies and breezy.
HIGH: Lower 70s     WIND: NE 10-15 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

Be sure to follow Racecast Weather on our Twitter feed @RacecastWx, and like our Facebook page RacecastWx. Want to see live radar for the St Petersburg area, click on the Radar link at the top of this page. We are also featured on the Pirelli World challenge Series website at world-challenge.com. Click on the Weather link at the top-right of the page.

Forecast Update For The Grand Prix of St. Pete

3/26/2015

By Scott Martin

Here is the latest forecast as of 8:30 AM EDT on Thursday 3/26/15:

THURSDAY
Partly cloudy skies expected throughout the daytime hours, with a slight chance of a passing shower during the late morning through the late afternoon hours. More clouds move in for the evening and overnight hours with a slight chance of rain and an isolated thunderstorm.
HIGH: Lower 80s     LOW: Around 70     WIND: SW 5-15 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 20%

FRIDAY
Mostly cloudy to completely cloudy skies throughout the daytime hours, with rain and some imbedded thunderstorms likely. Rain totals for the area are expected to be in the neighborhood of 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Winds will start to build throughout the day. Expect gusts up to 25 MPH after 12PM. Winds will shift from out of the southwest to northwest after 3PM. Rain chances start to diminish during the late evening and are completely gone after 2AM. Remember, if you hear thunder, seek shelter. Stay weather aware.
HIGH: Middle 70s     LOW: Around 60     WIND: SW Shifting To NW 10-20 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 70%

SATURDAY
Skies clear out and you will notice that the temperatures will definitely be cooler than the previous days. Expecting sunny skies with a little bit of a breeze. For the night time, much of the same. Clear skies and cooler.
HIGH: Middle 60s     LOW: Middle 50s     WIND: NNW 10-15 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

SUNDAY
Appears to be an almost carbon copy of Saturday, except it will be a little warmer. Sunny skies and not as breezy.
HIGH: Around 70     WIND: NE 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

Be sure to follow Racecast Weather on our Twitter feed @RacecastWx, and like our Facebook page RacecastWx. Want to see live radar for the St Petersburg area, click on the Radar link at the top of this page. We are also featured on the Pirelli World challenge Series website at world-challenge.com. Click on the Weather link at the top-right of the page.

Announcement: New partnership with Slipstream Podcast

3/25/2015

The list of Racecast Weather partners continues to grow! Scott and I are excited to announce a new partnership with Slipstream Podcast (@SlipstreamPOD). You'll get to hear what Scott and I sound like, as our weather forecasts will be featured on their podcasts. Slipstream Podcast has quickly become one of the top podcast shows for race fans of open wheel and sportscar racing.

Here's the annoncement from the Slipstream website:

We've been following the guys over at Racecast Weather for quite some time now. Racecast Weather is a weather forecasting service that primarily focuses on the weather impact of some racing series, particularly IndyCar, TransAm, Pirelli World Challenge, SCCA, Mazda Road to Indy, and a few other particular races. They've been putting out racing weekend weather forecasts since 2014. They even run a live radar on their website, focusing on the location of the current week's racing location.

Run by Doug Schneider and Scott Martin, Racecast weather will now be featured regularly on the Slipstream Podcast. We want to work together to give our listeners an accurate update for the upcoming racing weekends. This is important to be informed about as some of the best racing series in North America like to play in the rain as well as sunshine. Is your team going to be as strong of a contender with a slight chance of rain hanging over the weekend? Rain or shine, Racecast weather is definitely the spot to stay up to date on all the racing weather forecasts for the racing series you love. Look for them on twitter and in the coming weeks on our show.

Racecast Weather's Doug Schneider is a Senior Forecaster at the National Weather Service in Morristown, TN. He's got both a Bachelor's and Master's degree of Science in Meteorology. Scott Martin is currently a meteorologist student at Mississippi State University. They've already partnered up with a number of racing entities, including Pirelli World Challenge and Mazda Road to Indy. We think it's safe to assume they know what their talking about.

We'd like to extend a personal thanks to both Scott and Doug for working with us to bring you weather updates on the podcast. Without them, you probably wouldn't be getting an awesome racing forecast week by week.

You can click on the Links tab at the top of the page to see the full list of our partners who feature our forecasts on their websites or podcasts.

Forecast Update for Grand Prix of St Pete

3/24/2015

By Scott Martin

Here is the Tuesday morning forecast update for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg...

THURSDAY
Not much change from the first forecast. Day starts off mostly clear with just a few stray clouds, with clouds building during the late morning and early afternoon hours. A slight chance for a shower or thunderstorm is possible during the afternoon through the night. Its only a slight chance, so we may make it without rain at all (for now). Lets keep our fingers crossed.
HIGH: lower 80s     WINDS: SE at 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 20%

FRIDAY
Mostly cloudy conditions will persist throughout the day with a slight chance of showers and an isolated thunderstorm in the morning, and chances increasing throughout the afternoon.
HIGH: middle 70s     WINDS: SW at 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 50%

SATURDAY
Partly cloudy skies throughout the day with a slight chance of a passing shower or an isolated thunderstorm. Rain chances will start to diminish during the late afternoon and early evening hours.
HIGH: upper 60s     WINDS: NW at 5-15 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 30%

SUNDAY
Not much to say about the day except an absolute perfect day for racing. Skies will be mostly clear with only a few passing stray clouds.
HIGH: upper 60s to 70     WINDS: NE at 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

Be sure to follow Racecast Weather on our Twitter feed @RacecastWx, and like our Facebook page RacecastWx. Want to see live radar for the St Petersburg area, click on the Radar link at the top of this page. We are also featured on the Pirelli World challenge Series website at world-challenge.com. Click on the Weather link at the top-right of the page.

Racecast verification: 12 Hours of Sebring

3/23/2015

By Doug Schneider

The forecast for Sebring had some good points and some bad points. First, the good points: I think the probability of precipitation (PoP) forecast was good, if a tad too pessimistic. The day that I had forecast the best chances of rain did get some rain in the evening, around 9 pm. From some followers of Racecast Weather on Twitter who were at the track (thanks to Racecast Weather unofficial spotters Michael Goodwin and Vickie Miller), I learned that there were a few drops that fell at the track. From a verification standpoint however, we have to have measureable precipitation (0.01 inches or more) to count as a hit. But I only had 20 to 30 percent rain chances in the forecast, so that's a 70% to 80% chance of no measureable rain, which is good. There was no rain on Friday, as forecast, and the 80% chance of dry weather worked out on Saturday.

The temperature forecast was a little ugly, to be honest. But I have definitely learned something about forecasting temperatures for Sebring - it's one of the hottest places in the state of Florida. Take a look at this plot of surface observations from the mesonet across central and south Florida from Saturday afternoon:

Sebring Raceway is at the red dot, and you can see that the site nearby shows a temperature of 93, compared to most other sites in the area, which were in the 85 to 90 range. At least I trended the forecast in the right direction, warming temperatures with each update, and ended up pretty close on the last forecast. I'll make a note of the local Sebring heat island effect for my next Sebring forecast.

First Look Forecast for the St. Pete Grand Prix

3/23/2015

By Scott Martin

Looks like it is going to be a busy weekend in St. Petersburg. Since there are so many series that are running, I have decided to make the forecast graphics for each major series. Like I said, its a busy weekend, so let's get to it.

THURSDAY
The day will start off mostly clear with just a few stray clouds. Clouds will start to build during the late morning and afternoon hours with a slight chance for a shower or thunderstorm. I don't believe it will rain for long if it does, but I believe that we can make throughout the daylight hours dry (for now).
HIGH: lower 80s     WINDS: SW at 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 20%

FRIDAY
The day starts off mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning. Rain chances will actually increase during the late morning through the rest of the day. Looking at model data, it just seems to be scattered in nature, but enough of a threat to make the chances that high.
HIGH: lower 80s     WINDS: SW at 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 20%

SATURDAY
Mostly cloudy skies will start the day off with a slight chance of a shower during the morning hours until 10AM. After that, skies will become partly cloudy and winds will be quite breezy.
HIGH: lower 70s     WINDS: NW at 5-15 MPH, Gusting to 20 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 20%

SUNDAY
Perhaps the best day of the race week. Skies will be mostly clear with only a few passing stray clouds. It will be cooler than the rest of the week, and will especially feel that way with winds out of the north bringing down the cooler air.
HIGH: Upper 60s to 70     WINDS: N at 5-10 MPH     CHANCE OF RAIN: 0%

As with any forecast, it can and probably will change before the weekend gets here. Be sure to follow Racecast Weather on our Twitter feed @RacecastWx, and like our Facebook page RacecastWx. At any time you would like to see live radar for the St Petersburg area, click on the Radar link at the top of the page. We are also featured on the Pirelli World challenge Series website at world-challenge.com. Click on the Weather link at the top-right of the page. We will also have a major announcement (perhaps two) later this week, so be sure to check back often.

Friday forecast update: 12 Hours of Sebring

3/20/2015

By Doug Schneider

Based on the latest data, I'm adding a slight chance of showers to the forecast for this afternoon. Yesterday, there were some light showers that came very close to the track, and a few rain drops were reported at the track by a couple of our followers (thanks to Michael Goodwin and Vickie Miller). We could see a similar situation this afternoon. While the most likely scenario is a dry day, I can't entirely rule out a shower. Saturday looks much the same as well, with a few light showers around in the afternoon and evening. There's a better chance of some showers on Sunday as teams and fans pack up to leave. Again, nothing heavy is expected.